I will elsewhere do a detailed analysis of the two "journals" of the ALP - Challenge and Voice.
Today I just want to focus on one section of the Winter 2011 issue of Voice - and in particular one sixth of that.
The section was headed "6 New Big Policy Ideas". They were,
1. Green Grid for Australia - an extension of the national transmission grid to connect renewable resources
2. A new City for the Pilbara - a revamped version of the Whitlamite RED scheme.
3. Private Capital to fund Social Programs - which sounds cool but is really just outsourcing
4.Free up water licencing for environmental and economic benefit - which is just a piece of neoclassical economic theory about price signals of water
5. Time for a National Compensation Scheme - see below
6. Enshrine Parramatta As Sydney's Second CBD - self-explanatory, but long on how not why
These "Policy Ideas" are neither Big nor New.
Even in the write up for the National Compensation Scheme author John Della Bosca noted the then current Productivity Commission inquiry. Since then the report has been released, the Government has commited to a scheme and the Government has enrolled the States.
But when you get to the fine detail nothing yet exists. Till today when Per Capita is reported to be proposing a $15/week tax levy to fund the scheme. What the?
Like the ALP really needs another new tax?
What's more as the story notes "The call for a levy stands in contrast to the commission's recommendation that a national disability insurance scheme be funded out of general revenue."
I guess the romantic notions of big rural centres, of markets not Governments, reflects the thoughts of a group descended from Santamaria's Movement.
Mind you the left is no better.....
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
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