|
July 31, 2011
The Labor Government in South Australia is trying to renew itself whilst in office. It has internal problems and its standing in the electorate has sunk to an all time low. It is addressing this through removing Kevin Foley, the Treasurer, and Mike Rann, the Premier. The plan is to remove the dead weight, rebuild the Government and the Cabinet, and present a fresh image to the voters.
Gary Sauer-Thompson, graffiti, Port Adelaide, South Australia, 2011
Foley is now the ex-Treasurer, but he is still hanging around in cabinet, whilst Rann, by all accounts, has been told that his time is up. Labor's right faction has informed Rann that he either stands down or is removed.
Though Rann has had 17 years as state Labor leader and 9 as premier, and it's only a question of time before he realizes his time is up, he doesn't plan to go quietly. Even so, he is a dead man walking as the ALP realizes that generational change is necessary.
However, the SA Labor government needs to do more than present a fresh image to the voters for the next state election that is due in March 2014. The current Education Minister Jay Weatherill is to be the ALP's next state leader and SA's new premier. That kind of renewal strategy didn't save the NSW Labor Government. Voters there wanted a change of government not leaders. Is this the case in South Australia?
The SA Labor Government is a a tired, jaded government run by a right wing faction with little talent or policy ideas. There is an infrastructure build happening and the talking up both the defence precinct and a future mining boom that never seems to arrive. They are waiting for BHP-Billiton to give the go-ahead for the Olympic Dam mine expansion. Despite the state's transition from manufacturing to mining the government appears to be directionless.
Secondly, state politics in SA has little philosophical or ideological substance. Labor basically offer: They are the best to manage the state and deliver reasonable services. It's politics as administration coupled with lots of media spin.The politics is buried in the way that the rightwing faction controls the government.
|
The Rann Government ties itself in knots--eg. the Burnside Council inquiry by former auditor-general Ken MacPherson.
It asked for this inquiry and now it is suppressing the draft Report. They look plain incompetent, and they little comittment to transparent, open and responsible government.