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Gillard’s drag queen London YES event

Thursday, 28 September 2023

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Talk about reinforcing stereotypes. 
 
Gillard and her London lefty mates invited a drag queen along to their YES campaign event. 

This has become a fight for the radical inner suburban left. 
 
Can you imagine how relevant this is to the women and children being abused in remote Aboriginal communities?
 
UPDATE - well said Pauline.
 
Screenshot 2023-09-28 at 10.21.11 am
 

 

Posted at 12:08 PM | | Comments (32)

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Financial Review's sensible analysis of Victoria's Andrews Financial Catastrophe

Tuesday, 26 September 2023

Screenshot 2023-09-26 at 3.31.23 pm
Screenshot 2023-09-26 at 3.31.23 pm

Retiring Premier Daniel Andrews is leaving behind a nasty financial cocktail for his successors and future generations of Victorians.

Victoria’s gross debt forecast has exploded to about $220 billion, and global borrowing costs for governments have hit the highest rate in 15 years due to inflation angst.

Andrews exits with the second-largest state facing annual interest costs of $8 billion and rising.

Victoria has the highest public sector debt-to-revenue ratio of the states and the worst credit rating at AA, after being downgraded two notches by S&P Global Ratings during his world-record pandemic lockdown.

Gross debt has more than quadrupled from below $50 billion less than a decade ago.

To be sure, Andrews “big build” delivered lots of roads, bridges and tunnels with his borrowing binge to fund union-dominated infrastructure projects. Now, projects are facing massive cost blowouts and the bill will need to be paid.

He has left Victoria’s budget in an unsustainable position, after splurging big during the pandemic lockdowns and significantly expanding the size of the public service.

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It’s a case study in a strongman premier running the state without any accountability from a hopeless Liberal opposition.

Andrews banned gas exploration and extraction, jeopardising the state’s energy security. He blamed the big gas exporters.

Andrews committed eye-watering sums to pet projects such as the controversial Suburban Rail Loop that avoided any rigorous cost-benefit analysis. It was devised by PwC consultants before the 2018 state election and bypassed the traditional public service assessment.

It was classic Andrews: doing deals with his political mates and riding rough shod over financial due diligence.

He blew $1.1 billion cancelling Melbourne’s East West Link road project and $380 million on compensation for cancelling the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

Victorians will now face decades of higher taxes.

The states have such terrible tax bases that it will inevitably be employers and property owners who will be hit with higher payroll and land taxes.

Big employers are already paying billions extra for a state “mental health levy” – paradoxically paying for the social damage caused by Andrews’ lockdowns.

Victoria’s recent tax hit list of landlords, Airbnb owners, holiday home owners and private schools will be only the tip of the iceberg to get the state’s finances under control.

The $220 billion of gross debt now faces interest rates of about 5 per cent, compared to 1 per cent during the pandemic.

But Andrews blamed former Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe for his own fiscal recklessness.

Andrews went cap in hand in April for a financial bail-out from the federal government, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese politely declined.

Memories of early 1990s

Privatisations will be necessary – counter to Andrews’ 2022 election ploy to “bring back” the government-owned State Electricity Commission to invest in green energy projects. Ten months after the election, Andrews is leaving and the SEC is nowhere to be seen.

Victoria’s economy has been largely built on a massive population expansion. But in per person terms, gross household disposable income is languishing at seventh out of the eight states and territories, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The financial demise of Victoria is reminiscent of the early 1990s when the stricken State Bank of Victoria, its merchant banking arm Tricontinental and the collapsed Pyramid Building Society rendered the state almost bankrupt under the Labor government of John Cain and Joan Kirner.

Liberal premier Jeff Kennet turned around the state. His Labor successors Steve Bracks and John Brumby continued responsible fiscal management.

But the socialist Andrews has demonstrated a lack of respect for taxpayer money and for the financial health of Victorians – current and future.

As political commentator and former Kennet adviser Stephen Mayne observed: “Victoria’s finances are much worse than when John Cain quit, but somehow Dan has managed to leave on his own terms and govern without being held to account for imperilling the state’s public sector viability going forward.”

Andrews has left an unprecedented financial legacy for Victorians that will be felt for decades. Consequences, without accountability.

Posted at 05:38 PM | | Comments (35)

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