If you can’t perform, rejig the measure

The Age reports that the Government is prepared to reduce the performance requirements for the rail network operators, on the grounds that increased patronage makes it harder to achieve on-time requirements.

There’s some truth to that, but the real game is almost certainly rigging things so that the performance statistics look better prior to the next State election, at which point we can expect the ALP to be making a lot of noise about how things are “better”, when in reality they are probably worse.

Public transport in Melbourne is a mess and it’s only going to get worse. I don’t know — or particularly care — what the answer is, but I’m pretty sure it’s not another $8 billion on freeways. Not unless it’s a special bus-only freeway…

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Tags: News, Politics by matt
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Budget comments

A few small comments with respect to the 2008-09 (Australian) Federal budget:

  • Means-testing the baby bonus feels a bit petty. I’ve never really been that keen on the baby bonus anyway, but perhaps it should’ve been left alone until the question of paid maternity leave is addressed?
  • Laptops-for-the-kiddies is a nice idea but as has been pointed out in a number of places there are some infrastructure issues that are going to impede this. Laptops don’t keep running for eight hours without a charge and many state schools simply don’t have the electrical infrastructure to support them. Funding for that would’ve been a Good Idea…
  • Means-testing the solar panel rebate seems completely stupid. People who will now be eligible for the rebate are exactly the ones who don’t have $20-30k to spare for solar panels!
  • Half a billion for “clean coal” research? Yeesh.
  • Salary-sacrifice of laptops has been clobbered. Probably the right thing to have done but from a personal perspective I wish they’d waited until next year. Oh well.
  • The “alco-pop” tax increase. Not going to reduce binge drinking, which is (a) a niche problem; and (b) a cultural issue anyway. But there was an inconsistency with the alcohol taxes so it’s not unreasonable. Perhaps they should do the same with all drinks containing alcohol, just to even things out?
  • If half a million people are expected to bail from private health insurance because they’re no longer penalised for failing to have it, then that says to me that the real problem with private health insurance is that the product simply isn’t very compelling. Instead of whinging, industry should be trying to figure out how attract customers. That may well require negotiation with Government as it’s a heavily-regulated area. One obvious option would be to offer a low-cost high-excess package, a sort of “catastrophic cover” arrangement. I’m sure there are other things they could do.

Nelson continues to look like a fool in his response. It’s too soon, really, to expect the Liberals to have regained their balance after losing last year, but they’re going to have to start shaping up soon and it doesn’t look like Dr Nelson is the man to do it.

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Tags: Politics by matt
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And so it begins

“Here, enjoy this $1 billion pile of laptops. What, you wanted training and electricity?”.

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Tags: Politics by matt
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