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A half smart Rann Government
August 20, 2003 09:25 AM
There is in article in The Adelaide Review by Paul Chapman that evaluates the Rann Labor Government. He says that:
"... it has tactical elan...it is increasingly confident that it can do enough to get itself re-elected....is well organized, responsive and self-preserving....but it has yet to prove that it is innovative and original."
Chapman argues that this Government's strategy has borrowed heavily from Tony Blair in Britan: fiscal constraint, strident law and order and health and education being the focus of the agenda. Yet the Government is controlled by the powerful tough guy neo-liberals--- Rann, Foley and Conlon---who control the purse strings. It is the women who are given the soft issues of health and education and are expected to implement the ideas with budget cuts.
It is half-smart because it is not very good at joined up big picture thinking. Though we have lots of ideas floating around about making Adelaide a sustainable city, none of these have been linked up with fostering economic development. There is nothing in terms of industrial policy that actively fosters new Green businesses through retrofitting houses, manufacturing and installing solar panels, replacement of electric hot water systems zero water management program. Though there is a lot of emphasis on being innovative and dynamic there is little emphasis on facilitating innovative green technology let alone exporting it for income.