Well, with a Queensland Election coming up, the two (and a half) major parties are competing to see who can propose the most extravagant, inefficient, centrally planned dam in the stupidest places. I was starting to despair of finding anyone pushing a conservative solution that respected property rights and promoted individual water responsibility. This morning I found out a party promoting such a policy. The blasted Greens.
For the record, I can't stand half of Bob Brown's antics in the Senate. He's less a gadfly than a class clown. But even on the non-environmental policies they're not spectacularly more communist than the major parties, in what, under our current constitutional settlement, is a naturally tax-and-spend tier of government. On separating the major parties in the crucial latter preferences, I guess it will have to come down to the stagnation of Labor against the slapstick performance of the Coalition. The Nationals do have at least some decentralising instinct left: they're planning to reinstate local hospital boards (PDF). As it happens, both the major parties also tuck their policies into PDF documents, that hallmark of bland mass media pap hastily wrapped up for web distribution. Polls all seem to indicate Beattie will get up again with ease. At least they won't have to repaint the traffic signal box on Edward and Albert St.
Comments