The political debate is now well and truly up and running as to how best to pay for the QLD (and now Victorian) flood damage. There's been plenty of talk as to whether the Feds can keep their "return to surplus" predictions, and whether initiatives like a temporary Medicare levy increase should be adopted?
While it's obvious that the Federal Government has a meaningful part to play in the disaster recovery, we need to take a step back and just consider for a moment who is really responsible for funding the recovery efforts?
There's are a whole range of issues at play here (which hopefully the judicial inquiry will look at), and they include;
Do people who willingly choose to avoid paying the "flood premium" on their insurance expect anything in return?
What about the (unwritten) assurances that after post 1974 building of the dam that Brisbane was "flood proof"?
What about the people who live in areas where "flood cover" is not provided by the insurers?
Do we need go down the path of compulsory "force majeure" insurance as happens in a number of places around the world? And how would this affect the viability of the insurance industry (not to mention the effect on premiums)?
Alleged mismanagement of the Wivenhoe Dam by the premature release of water from there (as insinuated in The Australian newspaper)? What's their responsibility in providing compensation?
And the big daddy of them all, what about the planning policy failures of (generations of) local, State Governments, with their cow towing to greedy developers (with brown paper bag in hand?) who've consistently downplayed the threat of natural disasters in order to get zoning approval to build profitable properties in flood prone areas?
So I now go back to the original point, why should everyone start pointing at the direction of the federal government with begging bowl in hand? The reasons for the unprecedented damage caused by these floods seem to (at face value?) lie within the purvey of the State authorities. This seems to be their mess....so let their tax payers clean it up!
Showing posts with label qld. Show all posts
Showing posts with label qld. Show all posts
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Gillard's lack of leadership
While I've made passing reference to the lack of ability of our lightweight careerist PM Julia Gillard in this (and other) forums, thankfully I'm not the only one who's starting to see through the thin veneer.
Labor thinker Bob Ellis fired off the first round recently when he said of her; "civilised people's hands are already over their faces every time she speaks. That cannot last. She has no power, no influence, no friends, no learning. There's not much there", and "she's not well-informed, she hasn't, I think, read a novel or seen a film with subtitles....she has not much except a kindergarten sandpit response to things" read here .
Granted, pretty catty stuff that we may snicker at and dismiss, but unfortunately in the wake of the devastating QLD flood crisis Gillard's complete lack of leadership talents (and instinct) are on full display. Somehow she's managed to make a wooden, barely competent State Premier (Anna Bligh) look like Rudy Giuliani after 9/11 see here . Can you imagine the difference has Kevin Rudd still been in charge? In his admittedly over the top style, he would've been out there in an SES jumpsuit up to his knees in water. It's at times like these where the victims need to hear the soaring rhetoric of a Rudd, a politician with an instinct of hitting the right note and resonating with the electorate (and while it all eventually came undone for Rudd, he showed he could connect with the people).
But alas, no such inspirational leadership from Madam Lightweight Julia Gillard, instead all we get are dry statements which are more at home in the Industrial Relations Tribunal in her old job as a labour lawyer.
But the great tragedy of all this is that the alternative is even WORSE. A Coalition led by the "mad monk" whose poll numbers increase every time he stays silent! What a vacuum of leadership we're forced to endure at the national level....and there's little respite in sight.
Labor thinker Bob Ellis fired off the first round recently when he said of her; "civilised people's hands are already over their faces every time she speaks. That cannot last. She has no power, no influence, no friends, no learning. There's not much there", and "she's not well-informed, she hasn't, I think, read a novel or seen a film with subtitles....she has not much except a kindergarten sandpit response to things" read here .
Granted, pretty catty stuff that we may snicker at and dismiss, but unfortunately in the wake of the devastating QLD flood crisis Gillard's complete lack of leadership talents (and instinct) are on full display. Somehow she's managed to make a wooden, barely competent State Premier (Anna Bligh) look like Rudy Giuliani after 9/11 see here . Can you imagine the difference has Kevin Rudd still been in charge? In his admittedly over the top style, he would've been out there in an SES jumpsuit up to his knees in water. It's at times like these where the victims need to hear the soaring rhetoric of a Rudd, a politician with an instinct of hitting the right note and resonating with the electorate (and while it all eventually came undone for Rudd, he showed he could connect with the people).
But alas, no such inspirational leadership from Madam Lightweight Julia Gillard, instead all we get are dry statements which are more at home in the Industrial Relations Tribunal in her old job as a labour lawyer.
But the great tragedy of all this is that the alternative is even WORSE. A Coalition led by the "mad monk" whose poll numbers increase every time he stays silent! What a vacuum of leadership we're forced to endure at the national level....and there's little respite in sight.
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