Strong women, strong culture, strong babies.
Jessie Murarrgirarrgi, in Mary E. Mc Carthy, Saltwater Skin, p. 137
Latest Papers
The working papers collection comprises historical papers as well as current ideas and works in progress on some of the major issues and topics of our times.
Despite her war wounds you couldn’t get a better Westie than Di Beamer who knows her way around the hard suburbs. She’s generally held her own and been effective at repelling some of the Opposition leader's more fanciful attempts to win votes in the West.
In a clear area of major weakness for the government, Stoner has had some major hits. It was Stoner who said of the ALP in May 2006 "The origins of this once-proud party were in the bush, the Labor Party is now a city-dominated party whose frontbench looks like the cast of The Sopranos..” The Sopranos tag has stuck.
In the Justice portfolio, Labor’s Tony Kelly and the Liberal National Party’s Greg Aplin were equally matched. In Juvenile Justice the youth criminalisation policy of the Liberal National party is not a credible way of dealing with youth crime. In Emergency Services and Land and Rural Affairs the major parties were on level peggings.
The contest between Ian Mc Donald and Duncan Gay in the Legislative Council was often colourful. Labor’s strong strategy for rural and regional NSW and Mc Donald’s ability to humorously shrug off Gay’s attacks gave it the edge. Mc Donald also travelled energetically and extensively offering support throughout NSW during the second worst drought in one hundred years. This held him in surprisingly good stead for a Labor member within the rural community.
Labor appears to be playing catch up in this portfolio. The Liberal National policy is significantly better researched and presented.
Until the major parties see that it is important to set out Aboriginal affairs policies in election campaigns, Australia will remain an under developed country. Brad Hazzard has been a noble Liberal National Shadow Minister for a decade. However if Labor wins the next election the promotion of Linda Burney is a necessity that may create some competition, vision and policy substance at a political level that is badly needed in NSW.
Women’s Policy for both the mainstream NSW parties is an area of under performance that the politicians seems to have forgotten.
Mr Piccoli made the outstanding parliamentary contribution of 2006 with his private members statement on multicultural values. Ian Mc Donald performed well in an area where the government had some severe weaknesses. I judged Mc Donald to be the superior media performer and the Liberal National Party policy agenda to be superior to Labor’s particularly because of its expansion of the rainwater tank rebate program - a solid policy which has been overshadowed by controversy concerning water recycling and Labor’s desalination proposal.
Health in NSW is the most difficult and demanding of portfolios with a $10.2 billion dollar budget and 93,675 employees. Jillian Skinner and the Liberal National Party deserve commendation for preventive health strategy and their concept of localising the administrative structure of the NSW health system - an important preliminary step before we can finally rationalise health funding and management through a single funder - the Commonwealth Dept of Health. John Hatzistergos came up with the single best policy initiative of the campaign in the form of After Hours GP Clinics but Labor’s policy entrenches the existing State system and bureaucracy.
While Michael Costa acted like an imbecile in the parliament, he delivered growth for the NSW economy in the nick of time and was largely responsible for de-railing the Opposition’s attack on the economic record of the Iemma government. O’Farrell though is the leader in waiting of the Liberal Party.
