"At home we don't buy goats, we send in the army."
Bruce Pascoe, Salt, p. 80
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.
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.
Education and Training is one of the biggest departments of the NSW government. It has an annual budget of 9.3 billion of which just over 7 billion dollars was spent on 88,717 employees who earned a relatively modest average pay, about $44,000 per annum less that average pay of the employees of the Premiers Department. In our analysis Brad Hazzard and Minister Carmel Tebbutt performed equally well in a relatively high calibre policy contest.
The NSW Labor and the Liberal National Party clearly place no importance at all on the Arts. Neither party have released any policy document on the subject. This portfolio is seen simply as a sinecure. It is one of the disappointing aspects of NSW and Sydney culture that none of our serving politicians seem to understand the social, cultural and economic importance of the arts.
The Department of Environment has grown in importance as the era of climate change consolidates politically. It has been a matter of catch up to public opinion on the importance of the arena. Labor and the Liberal National Party are starting to place renewed emphasis on population wide measures.
The 4650 employees under the Attorney General have an average six figure salary and the department’s budget is $818,406 million. The court system has been overtaxed by the increased intrusion of mandatory sentencing as the politicians play law and order games.
Ageing and Disability is a 1.7 billion dollar department comprising 7635 employees 4925 in supported accommodation and 2711 in home care receiving the smallest renumeration of all of the NSW government departments representing about 31 per cent of the total budget.
