goodbye and good riddance to Brumbles...er..Brumby

While most of us on the progressive side of politics were thrilled with the election of the "accidental Premier" Steve Bracks in October 1999 after the savage cost cutting and contemptuous Kennett Government, the longer the Labor Govt stayed in office, the more and more disheartened I became with their performance. And that revulsion only intensified after Bracks "retired" and Brumbles took over (I've always referred to him as "Brumbles" since Kennett mocked him and pretended he couldn't remember his name).
I've often (half jokingly) said that the only things this Labor Govt achieved during their whole time in office were;
restoring the powers of the Auditor-General
instituting proportional representation in the upper house
invoking a human rights charter
and banning smoking in restaurants (and to a lesser extent in night clubs)
I guess the first thing that really started to cheese me off about them was the covert revenue raising by restricting the tolerance levels on speed cameras to a ridiculous 3 kms, which of course meant when the inevitable camera faults occurred, people essentially had to cop it sweet because they really had no way to disprove the reading, as the onus of proof was on the victim, not the state! And what did the Govt do every time their cameras were embarrassingly exposed as faulty and innocent people getting booked?......they'd come out with that infuriating pre scripted line about "we don't apologise for trying to save lives etc".....I mean for f*ck sake, you should be down on your hands and knees apologising for the needless stress you've put honest citizens through!! And behind the scenes those of us in the know knew that the real reason for lowering speed tolerance was to subversively increase state revenue without publicly increasing taxes. Then this cheeky thought process led to the other brilliant idea of indexing all state charges and fines every year, to once again raise more revenue without having to tell the public you're making unpopular tax increases.
There's a whole list of other reasons why Brumby had a "shock" election loss, but it's probably summed up best by Labor apparatchik George Droutsas in this op-ed piece see here .
But as for me the final straw in abandoning this Govt was its cynical attack on State institutions, after being elected on a platform of transparency. The use of tax payer funded tv ads to cynically glorify itself used to really just get my blood boiling, and using the "commerical in confidence" to pay (what is essentially) slush money to Bernie Eccelstone to keep that f*cking awful Grand Prix in Melbourne. I mean how much does that race cost? Sorry I can't tell you coz it's a secret! Perhaps one day this State will follow California's policy of no "commercial in confidence" agreements, and make ALL financial transactions will private companies a matter of public record!
But I think today's revelation see here pretty much sums up the former Govt perfectly. Once again attacking State institutions by being "prepared to disadvantage two public servants because one of them had performed her duties in compliance with the act".
Some of my friends in the lead up to the election asked me with bewilderment why I was supporting the conservatives? I guess apart from the reasons mentioned above, I believe strongly in transparency, and state institutions, and a government's responsibility to uphold them. But over time all we got was slick cynical spin and what I can only describe as a contempt for the electorate. So yeah, I guess it's a case of goodbye Brumbles....and GOOD RIDDANCE!