Voters revolt against spin over substance

FROM MY CORNER ... with Ann Brunswick

Well, the voters of New South Wales certainly made their views about the Labor Party government well and truly known last weekend. Watching ABC News 24’s coverage of the results made me realise that not once in the night was the expression “too close to call” used by any of the pundits on the national broadcaster’s panel when commenting on the likely outcome.

It seems the voters south of the border didn’t really like the idea of giving another term to a long-serving government that stressed spin over substance even though it was led by a premier more popular than her party and had previously relied on the incompetence of its opposition to secure re-election. Now, why does that situation sound so familiar?
One of the highlights of the previously mentioned ABC coverage came when host Kerry O’Brien, late of the late 7.30 Report and most lately hosting Four Corners later in the evening, told viewers that Premier Kristina Kenneally might be delaying her concession speech in deference to Earth Hour.
That announcement brought muffled yet audible hoots of derision from some on the floor of the tally room. Maybe they were among those who thought Kenneally shared with Earth Hour the problem of having a bit more spin than substance.
If you missed it last Saturday evening, Earth Hour is an idea that started in Australia. It is now held once a year in various locations around the globe with the aim of raising awareness of the need to save energy and help fight global warming. Somehow this is achieved by having major landmarks in participating cities turn off their lights for a full 60 minutes.
Exactly how it contributes to lowering greenhouse gas emissions has never been clear in my mind. The issue is further clouded if you happened to see the many banners hanging from light poles in the CBD advertising Earth Hour. It is not clear to me if the organisers count the emissions from the trucks running around our city streets, and the streets of other cities, erecting such signage.
The bottom line in my mind is the fact that none of our coal-fire power stations would have missed a beat during the 60 minutes when a handful of structures went dark. They would have continued pumping out their gases.
Don’t get me wrong. The aim of the event is sound, it is just that it is difficult to see how it actually achieves anything.

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On the subject of global warming, perhaps the NSW election result could provide a solution to our planetary woes.

One of the supposedly safe Labor Party seats that fell last Saturday night was the electorate of Bathurst, one of the sacred sites of the labour movement having been the home town of former Labor icon and PM Ben Chifley. But after a historic swing of almost 37 per cent against Labor, Bathurst is now a safe National Party seat. That in itself gives some indication of the animosity towards the former government.
The solution to global warming could be to head out to Bathurst Cemetery and install a dynamo to harness the power generated from Chifley spinning in his grave after last Saturday’s election result. It is a simple idea, with as much likelihood of solving our energy problems as Earth Hour.

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On the subject of state politics, a lot has been written in the past week or so about the prospects of Campbell Newman in his quest to lead the Liberal National Party to power at the next election.

Some commentators have pointed out that a popular lord mayor is not guaranteed a seat in State Parliament, and use the late Clem Jones as an example. True, Jones stood for the Labor Party in Yeronga at the 1972 state election after little more than a decade in office in City Hall. But his loss in the seat was not as straightforward as some have made out. You see, after Jones was announced as candidate to tackle the Liberals’ Norm Lee, a redistribution of electoral boundaries was held. In those bad old days the redistributions were conducted by an "independent" panel of commissioners. Most just happened to be on very friendly terms with the Bjelke-Petersen government. As it turned out, by the time the "independent" commissioners finished their work the Yeronga that Jones was seeking to win was not the Yeronga he originally sought. Needless to say he lost.
Nowadays of course, nothing as sinister as that could happen. Could it?