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March 10, 2003
Bob Carr says that he runs a modest ship of state. It is about keeping things ticking over with fiscal restraint + a modest list of promises, including more teachers, smaller classes and expanded cancer services.
Graham Young provides an on-the-ground feel-- the NSW street---of the election from the work at the On Line Focus website
And green issues? Is not Bob Carr being sold by the ALP publicity machine as the Green premier? The Premier says:
"We have elevated environment concerns to the heart, not the fringe of politics. We have fought against the ultimate in overdevelopment - namely, a rate of population growth too big forSydney or Australia to handle. We have engaged a mature electorate about population policy and the slim carrying capacity of our fragile land. Labor's approach in NSW is far removed from the growth at any cost view of some other states. Our focus is on protecting our quality of life."
It is not just overpopulation. Its more about unsustainable practices with respect to water and land clearing and overdevelopment along the coast. Political expediency has meant little has been done over the last 8 years. The greens raise these issues and this makes them more than a outlet for protest votes against the Carr Government.
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Like the Big Pineapple, they know that environment issues attention span is limited in voter la la land. When Goss got in, he promised the Gov't would buy freehold urban bushland in SE Queensland, since it will be mostly gone in 15 years. The scheme bought one property, then closed down. The Big Pineapple hasn't brought it back either, even though it was a key part of the SEQ2001 report, which itself makes interesting reading nowadays. Beware the greenwash of the ALP -- there is going to be bucketloads of it.