...............In New South Wales and Queensland especially, but also elsewhere, many punters have simply switched off on their state governments.
People living in Australia’s suburbs – where elections are won and lost - now look to the federal Government in areas normally considered the domain of the states, such as health and education, because they believe their state governments are not up to the job.
This has not been helped by Rudd’s 2007 campaign promises of federal intervention in health and the schools’ laptop roll out. It all sounded perfectly sensible back then to the punters, and no doubt added to the perception of Rudd as a man of great utility and force who could step in anywhere across Australia’s three tiers of government and put things right.
But 27 months down the track, it’s become obvious that Rudd has made a rod for his own back. His government now and up to the next election will be held to account for every disgrace that occurs in hospitals and shambles around the campuses in the nation.
Seriously, does anyone think that the Feds could administer health better than the states? The answer to that, in short, is that Rudd does but is growing lukewarm on the idea, and Tony Abbott also does, up to a point at least.
Most sane people will regard the establishment of a gigantic, Mordor-like bureaucracy in public health with alarm. The shambles of the home insulation roll out is a reminder that the Commonwealth is often a poor administrator, especially when cobbled-together policies are implemented. The deaths, fires and ominous present dangers brought about by hurling money at an unregulated industry would pale by comparison at what might go wrong if the Feds started running our hospitals.
The other issue that will be a real problem for the Rudd Government is the Henry Tax Review. Dennis Shanahan wrote about this ticking policy time bomb in The Australian today.
The Henry Tax Review promises to offer Tony Abbott and the Coalition more free kicks than Brendan Fevola gave away last season.
It will provide the Opposition with the opportunity to paint the Government as high taxing and high spending leading, Abbott et al will argue, to high interest rates. Say what you will about Tony Abbott, but he has shown a certain surgical efficiency to date in promoting a scare campaign and, increasingly, he is getting his message across.
Treasurer Wayne Swan would like to regard the Henry Tax Review as the sort of document that belongs among a pile of crap in boxes out in the garage just near where the cat threw up. He remembers seeing it a while back, but he’s not sure where it is now and it will take a lot of trouble finding it again, so let’s move on shall we?
But Swan won’t be able to dismiss it so quickly. That’s not to say that Henry’s recommendations are not worthwhile, and no doubt many could be worthy changes to the way we line the Commonwealth’s pockets, but cutting edge reform is not the sort of thing a Government likes to take into an election. ...................
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/ ... ure_thing/