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There are three interesting facets of the Parliamentary call for papers from the NSW Legislative Council to the NSW RTA.
First of all it came from an independent MLC - plausible deniability for both major parties. That it didn't come from the Government party is understandable, but why not from the Opposition? I merely ask the question.
Second, it didn't include some of the sexier developments that you could have asked for - like any documents connected with the the Cross City Tunnel. It sounds like a controlled release of only somewhat damaging information.
Third, why did Greg Donnelly, Leader of Government business in the Upper House, let it though?
Railcorp also announced the appointment recently of a new Chairperson, Elizabeth Crouch. That certainly would have made David Clarke happy. Where is Dan Brown when you really need him?
Why is it that Journalists consider themselves "Insiders"? The ABC program of the same name is such a blatant exercise in self-congratulation that you need to take your stemitil or soda bi-carb. What an oxygen thief is the aptly named Annabel Crabb! Vomitous! The snide little nana smile when she linked the names of Christopher Pyne and Grant Hackett was amongst the lowest and vicious pieces of journalism that I have ever seen. No one gives a damn anymore, honey! And anyway, how un-PC! Besides, it was Adelaide.
What I really enjoyed was Anthony Albanese, the inaptly named Infrastructure Minister, distancing himself from his NSW Ministerial bed partner. Carmel can speak for herself, frankly, but it must still be an embarrassment. I won't try to replicate the conversation. Actually, maybe I will. It's too, too precious.
"Darling, can you put some more infrastucture, sorry salt, in the stew."
"No, darling, I think it has too much corruption already. Sorry, I mean anchovy."
And they're not the only ministerial transmolonglo couple. Did you notice Belinda - at least I think it was Belinda - sitting behind Wayne as he brought down the budget. Such a salutory reminder of NSW ALP culture!
God and Caesar thinks Kevin will come unstuck at the hands of the NSW Right. He knows it, and he's not optimising his options at the moment. That distant handshake in the papers says it all.
Early election? Palace coup? Latham meltdown? Your guess is as good as mine.
So who is actually running NSW, and who's actually running the Country?
Much as I hate factionalism, a power vacuum with no clear winner is what I fear most. Please let us know if you happen to find out.
The Inferno of Dante paints a number of startling pictures. Not least of these is the fate of those who corrupt public life. Usurers (we'd call them bankers) are planted upside down with molten gold poured down their fundament for all eternity. Those who accept emolluments for corrupt decisions are treated even worse - stuffed headfirst down a tunnel with those of their own kind for all eternity. That of course means that your head would be were it was in this life - firmly up the arse of the next in line.
It is a pity that the clergy of NSW no longer preach against this sort of vice. But there's always World Youth Day to consider.
It pays to read Hansard on a daily basis - rather like having your carrot juice or moisturising. For example:
That, under standing order 52, there be laid upon the table of the House within 14 days of the date of passing of this resolution the following documents
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The SMH has an article on the Federal Government's snubbing of NSW's infrastructure requests.
I imagine they were dreading a question in Federal Parliament along the lines of "I address my question to the Treasurer, Mr Speaker: In the light of concerns raised by the NSW Ombudsman about transparency of reporting and appointments in the NSW RTA, has the Treasurer taken steps to ensure that any money paid to the NSW Government for infrastructure development is properly used and will not go to pay exorbitant fees to legal consultants
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That Tele Article had some interesting lacunae. I loved the references to "officials" and "insiders". In order to understand what lies beneath you need to know who the informants were: which faction; which tendency in the factions; which union; which office; whom they've slept with recently (and whom they've EVER slept with); who has R Effed them or any of their relatives to the third and fourth generatiuon. Like the House of Bourbon, the Labor right remembers nothing - and forgets nothing.
As I am informed by people whom I judge know what they're talking about, Rees is a candidate of the Left. The first Left Premier in living memory, and probably longer. This indicates not that he won a fair fight but that the right threw the contest. They don't want it now, they're preparing for later. Once the Liberals win Government in NSW - as is inevitable (unless the Greens do - a signficant, though not likely, possibility) there will be a Night of the Long Knives, a Sicilian Vespers, a factional bloodbath of biblical proportions. It will not so much be directed, though, at the Left, but at non-complying right factions. Then once Government is regained eight year later, the corrupt public service consultancies will be awarded
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I'm very grateful for contributions to the comm boxes, but I have to be viligant. Offensive or defamatory comments WILL BE DELETED. "Anonymous Mischief", you need to understand that your comments were a little offensive and provided too much context to the comments made by bloggers from Kev's office (many thanks Kitchen Cabinet). For all that, you're always welcome to send comments and tip-offs via email - which is a common practise amongst many of my readers.
Bob Carr has decided that it’s the party and the unions who are to blame for the criminal neglect of infrastructure in NSW. When in doubt blame the sclerotic party and union structure. Tell you what, Bob, it happened on your watch. You have to reflect, as well, on who got the $200,000 plus a year consultancies with Macquarrie Bank? It certainly wasn’t Comrade Joe from Macquarrie Fields. So then it’s nothing to do with keeping tunnels and tollways profitable for private investors. Maybe it’s time for God and Caesar to do some digging around the Cross-City tunnel. Who signed off on that contract? What kind of documentation did the RTA provide to ministers in order to make that decision? Who instructed whom to construct which briefs? I’m sure it’s well hidden, but we can find it if we go looking.
Another interesting facet of NSW infrastructure neglect is the alleged falling out between Rudd and Rees According to this report, “the PM was also said to be alarmed at the NSW Government's infrastructure failings and the poor quality of its submissions to Infrastructure Australia for funding from the Commonwealth.” Well if the Federal Government is going to spend billions of its Stimulus Package on NSW Infrastructure, then it probably ought to have a look at the Ombudsman’s report into the RTA. Presumably that ICAC report will also eventually come out, though not before the next Federal election, I imagine
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Albert Einstein is reputed to have invented the notion of the thought experiment. Let's try one! Just imagine that a government minister, directed by the senior apparatchiks of his party, resolved to appoint a fixer to a public service agency to provide two services: running the factional favour system at the behest of the party apparatus and; keeping a lid on Freedom of Information requests that were getting too close to the bone (say, for example, public/private contracts that had obnoxious clauses limiting the Government's ability to invest in public transport infrastructure so that a tollway or tunnel, for example, would remain profitable - especially if senior government officials later took lucrative consultancies with the same organisations that had won the contracts or were financing them).
So what would such an appointment look like? Would there be a massive paper trail and minutes of secret meetings? Would the appoinment be lucrative? Would the person so appointed be able to hire and fire pretty much at will, having the implicit, though never-stated-outright, authority of the minister and those behind the minister? Would such a person be able to award contracts, just for example, for consultancies to law firms pretty much at will
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I never believe pub gossip unless I want to. Is it true but? Has the well known factional brawl in Victoria spilled over into other states and does it explain some things that have made the news recently?
I don't know. It's like trying to intuit how the submarine fight to the death between a giant calamari and a sperm whale is progressing
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Comment by Ephraem
on Peter Roebuck
God and Caesar