It will be remembered as the mother of all Swan dives by ‘Khemlani Kev’ (for those who can’t remember, Tirath Khemlani was a shady Pakistani money lender of last resort for the economically disgraced Whitlam government in 1975). 

The Global Financial Crisis has almost been a god-send for the Rudd Labor Government.  It has allowed Khemlani Kev and his Ministers to blame ‘the GFC’ for almost everything but the weather. 

They have carefully stage-managed their image as ‘the good guys’ by raiding the surplus bequeathed to them by the Howard-Costello government.  Remember John Howard inherited an $80 billion deficit from the Keating Labor government and, with prudent economic management, transformed this liability into a healthy surplus of around $100 billion. 

During John Howard’s term we were warned of an economic Tsunami as a result of an impending Asian Economic Crisis.  To Howard’s great credit he didn’t try to avoid responsibility for hard economic decisions by trying to pass blame as Khemlani Kev is now trying to do.

The Howard Government weathered the Asian Economic Crisis with prudent economic management.  The Rudd Government is doing the opposite.  They have already spent the surplus by giving the money away and urging them to buy Chinese plasma television sets.  It should have been called the ‘Harvey Norman Stimulus Package!’

Of course everybody now thinks that Khemlani Kev is a good bloke and, if it wasn’t for that nasty ‘GFC’ he would obviously send out more cheques.

The only thing between Khemlani Kev and the next election was the need to frame a budget that will get him over the line.  He used the Labor strategy  of ‘whatever it takes’ and decided to borrow on the never-never.  The bottom line is now clear.  Australia now has a net debt of $188 billion – the highest in our history.  Every man, woman and child in Australia now owes $9000 each – plus interest!

Unemployment is predicted to rise.  Many of those who voted for ‘workchoices’ are now faced with ‘no choices’! 

Employee share plans, the one opportunity for hard workers to own a share of their company, have been scrapped.

The reduction of the rebate on Private Health Insurance will force tens of thousands back into public health which with devastating  effects on our hospital system which is already at breaking point.

Australia is going to pay for Khemlani Kev’s reckless spending for generations to come.  The only positive about it all is that the Whitlam era of disastrous economic management will pale into insignificance when the taxman comes knocking in a year or two.

The Hon. IAN MACDONALD: I am aware of this issue. I have received representations from the proponents and many of the people from the council areas mentioned. The proponents have the right to seek to put their proposal before the Government. I am not aware that any decision has been made. It is a planning matter and will be properly dealt with in due course under proper arrangements in this State.

The Hon. Charlie Lynn: Can the Minister give an assurance?

The Hon. IAN MACDONALD: I can only give the honourable member an assurance that it will be dealt with properly.

HANSARD – LEAFS GULLY POWER STATION PROPOSAL

Webster’s dictionary defines self-congratulation, which is what the motion is about, as congratulation of one’s self, especially a complacent acknowledgement of one’s own superiority. Although it is not a surprise that a member of this complacent Government would move such a complacent motion, it is extraordinary that it would be done at this time. In fact, it is an absolute joke for any member of the State Government to congratulate himself or herself on preventing crime in the midst of this State facing the most serious threat from organised crime in a generation. I refer to outlawed motorcycle gangs. Hardly a day goes by when there is not a drive-by shooting, something that was unheard of when the Labor Party came to Government in 1995. If a drive-by shooting had occurred, particularly at a police station, that would have made the headlines in every newspaper. Today it rarely rates a mention, because it happens so frequently.

All that has happened under this Labor Government’s watch. However, the Government says that there is no crime, everything is under control, and boy, it is doing a good job! A Sydney Morning Herald article on the Sydney Airport bikie brawl stated:

A Hells Angels bikie was killed in a huge brawl with rival club, the Comancheros, in a brazen attack at Sydney Airport, witnessed by dozens of travellers yesterday afternoon.

The 29-year-old was knocked to the ground during the brawl—involving at least 10 men—and bashed repeatedly on the head with a metal bollard—

and this was in broad daylight—

The attack took place in terminal three, one of the most secure and monitored public spaces in Australia—

a place where, up until now, the public thought was quite safe—

A shocked NSW Premier, Nathan Rees, immediately announced he would meet the Police commissioner, Andrew Scipione, this morning to discuss tough new anti-bikie legislation.

Once the bikie violence became public, the Premier and State Labor Ministers were most probably advised that they needed to be seen to be doing something about it. The charade being played out in this House by means of this motion adds to that impression. Paragraph (a) of the motion congratulates the Government on its continued efforts to prevent crime in local communities across New South Wales. The Government does not make an effort to prevent crime in local communities. The Government makes an effort to prevent the perception of crime through the media. The Government not only prefers a good headline to a good result, but also is obsessed with good headlines, on a daily basis.

Under this Labor Government, this Parliament has been labelled the laziest in the country. This year—365 days—the Legislative Council is scheduled to meet 54 times. A lot of those sitting days are Clayton’s sitting days, because they do not have question time. That this House is scheduled to meet so infrequently would lead a reasonable person to conclude that when members do occasionally come to this place they debate important legislation that the Government wants passed. But we are not debating an increase in police powers, we are not debating an increase in police resources, we are not debating an increase in police pay, we are not debating how to better protect brave police officers, and we are not even debating a motion that congratulates police officers for doing a great job.

Indeed it is, to create the perception that this place is still relevant. The Government has an opportunity to go to the Police Association website and sign up to “Keep Our Cops”. I ask members: Who has been to the website and signed up? I think all Opposition members have. Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes certainly has, and I imagine Reverend the Hon. Fred Nile will do so straight after this debate. Of course, no Government member has signed up. The Government is continuing to demonstrate how inept, out of touch and devoid of any real solutions to the State’s problems it is. Unfortunately for the people of the State, the Government is not only inept on law and order, it has also failed the people of New South Wales in every portfolio and area of management across the board.

The Government has vandalised the New South Wales economy, almost beyond repair. It has put the State’s hospitals on their deathbed. It has taken trains off the rails and it has failed to invest in schools, and therefore it has failed our children and this State’s future leaders. But law and order is particularly out of control. With all the drive-by shootings, one could be forgiven for thinking that one went to sleep in Sydney and woke up in Baghdad. Paragraph (b) of the motion commends the Government for its leadership in bringing together government agencies, local communities and other stakeholders to work together to reduce crime. But by all accounts, any reduction in crime is despite the Government’s leadership and not because of it. The Government has done everything it can to allow crime in our once premier State to flourish. A prime example of this is police numbers. Yesterday we heard lies, damn lies and statistics.

The latest police numbers available to the community on the New South Wales Police Force website are for November last year. My leader, the Hon. Michael Gallacher, referred to that yesterday in his contribution to the debate. Under previous police Ministers, police numbers for one month were available by the middle of the following month. In my duty area of south-west Sydney, some residents have raised concerns with me over whether the Wetherill Park police station was just a Clayton’s station, as it was so understaffed and under-resourced. In an attempt to uncover the truth and discover whether the allegations had any basis, I went straight to the source. I called the Wetherill Park police station and, after being transferred between people—none of whom returned my calls—I spoke with an officer, who shall remain nameless.

I asked the constable what police officers wanted from the State Government. Her reply, without much hesitation, was that police needed not only more front-line officers but also higher-ranked officers who have the knowledge and experience necessary to combat crime. Further, the constable said, “New South Wales police are not sufficiently equipped.” She claimed that they lacked basics such as uniforms, radios and equipment. But her most alarming claim was that their car computers “never work” and that they needed PDT systems. That claim was further evidenced in a recent article in the Daily Telegraph, which stated:

Police stations in some of Sydney’s high-crime areas are suffering a shortage of senior police despite a streamlined promotions system.

The problem of attracting qualified sergeants to work at some southwest stations was so dire it was proposed to force officers to transfer.

There are 24 unfilled sergeant positions across the southwest region, The Daily Telegraph has learned.
Both Fairfield and Merrylands commands are believed to be among the hardest hit, with six and five vacant sergeant positions respectively. Other areas believed to be affected are Blacktown and Rosehill.

Although those suburbs in my duty area of south-west Sydney are some of the most dangerous in Sydney, they are also the most neglected by this Government; and, as a result, suffer the most from critical staff shortages. That has resulted in an increase in crime, as shown in a graph I have obtained from the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. A couple of years ago, when a lot of crime was reported, how did the Government fix that? It changed the definition of crime. The Government took serious crime—regarded as serious by some people, such as murder, drug offences, and so forth—off the crime category statistics. That meant that Rose Bay was a more dangerous area than Lakemba. We all know that if Rose Bay were a dangerous place the Treasurer would probably move to Vaucluse; but that is not the case.

The Government actually changed the definition. The Government will do anything to manipulate statistics; it will fudge the figures or change a definition. Between 1995, when the Labor Government came to power, and 2007, which is the latest of the full year figures from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, in western Sydney assaults increased by 102.6 per cent, sexual assaults by 76.6 per cent, robbery with a weapon by 61.2 per cent, and robbery with a weapon not a firearm by 117.5 per cent. Especially interesting is a graph titled “Trend in violent crime—NSW: 1995-2008″, which can be downloaded from the Government’s Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research website. The graph shows an increase in violent crime of about 20 per cent from 1995 to 2008. I advise the Hon. Tony Catanzariti that it is not too late to withdraw his motion. This must be embarrassing to the Government, because I have quoted its own figures. I think one would call that almost an “own goal”.

Let us look at police powers, because we are talking about crime prevention. The New South Wales Labor Government pays lip service to police but does not support them at crunch time. In February last year this House debated the Crimes Amendment (Murder of Police Officers) Bill 2007. This was a bill of some substance introduced by our leader, the shadow Minister for Police, Michael Gallagher, himself a former police officer, as we all know. He knows what New South Wales police officers need because he is in touch with many of his friends who are still in the Police Force and, like the rest of the Coalition, is in touch with the wider community. During that debate a conga line of Labor members spoke out against protecting police by opposing the setting of mandatory life sentences for the murder of police officers. Police put their lives on the line every day and every time the community calls them for help. But the one time police called for help this State Government did not answer.

For example, the Hon. Amanda Fazio said during the debate, “We cannot overlook the idea that a person may be able to be rehabilitated, that there might be some redemption for somebody who is convicted of a very serious crime.” Labor voted against the Crimes Amendment (Murder of Police Officers) Bill and opposed the protection of officers who put their lives on the line. There is no more important person than a police officer when they have to put themselves in a dangerous situation to protect innocent people. There is no greater deed than to put their lives on the line. Many of them lose their lives in the line of duty.

The public should be given a very clear message: nobody touches police. If you do, the maximum force of the law will be brought against you. That is protection of the civil community; that is supporting police. But this Government voted against that. It is obvious that Government members do not move very far away from their inner-city cafes, which are fairly secure places. But further west where there is crime because of lack of police numbers and powers and lack of police leadership and political leadership, it is sometimes a veritable war zone. Members opposite refused to help them.

Members opposite should be ashamed of themselves. Henry, you need to get up in caucus and speak out on this, mate. That bill should be reintroduced because the situation is very serious. The mover of this complacent motion, which congratulates the State Government and not police officers, was not present during that debate on 27 February, but it is fair to say he probably would have crossed the floor had he been in this Chamber.

What do police want? The New South Wales Police Association started a petition to get a fair wage for a fair day’s work. I have signed that petition and I support the campaign of the Police Association and the more than 15,000 police to obtain a decent pay rise. More and more police officers are quitting the force every day. Again the Government is fudging the figures. Police officers just cannot get out of the Police Force now. I met a policeman the other night who has been on the list to get out of the force for two years. He has a friend who has been on the list for four years. This allows the Government to fudge the figures again. It is a perception rather than a reality. The Keep our Cops website shows that 1,463 police have left the force since the last State election.

What are police looking for? They want a salary that recognises the risks faced by police officers and the contribution they make. This Government wants to cap a police wage increase at 2.5 per cent, which is a cut in take-home pay for our men and women in blue. More than three-quarters of New South Wales police say that they will seriously reconsider their position in the Police Force if wage increases are capped at 2.5 per cent. When we consider that many police stations across the State are already chronically understaffed, this becomes a serious concern. Fair pay relative to the job our police do to keep us safe is vital. Without it there is no guarantee police will stay in the job.

They want protection with death and disability insurance, which should be their right. Our police put their lives on the line day in, day out to keep the streets safe. Police and their families deserve comprehensive insurance protection should they be killed or injured in the line of duty. Currently there is a fundamentally good system in place but it is at serious risk. Death and disability insurance should be considered a basic right of employment for all New South Wales police.

They want reasonable breaks between shifts. They currently get an eight-hour break between shifts. When travel time and sleep are factored in, and the fact is that the cost of living in Sydney is forcing many people to live away from their workplace, fatigue becomes a major issue. For example, an officer finishing a shift at 2.00 a.m. can be asked to start again at 10.00 a.m. When travel time and time with the family are factored in, the time for sleep in preparation for the next 12-hour shift is very limited. Police are charged with looking after community safety. We cannot afford to have police officers working without adequate rest, which is why the association is calling for an increase in the break between shifts from eight hours to at least 10 hours.

They want compensation for being on call during personal time. New South Wales police currently get a miserly amount of money—less than $20 per shift, not per hour—for being on call. That is not a lot considering the limitations put on on-call officers. The fact that they could be called into work at any moment means that they spend their day by the phone rather than spending their time off relaxing. It means they cannot commit to looking after children or to catching up with friends and family and cannot travel far from home. New South Wales police realise the importance of on-call duty, but they should be duly compensated for the restrictions it places on their home lives.

Police want recognition of specialist skills to keep police in critical areas. Police with specialist skills such as lawyers and water police are in short supply. The pay rates for those with specialist skills in the Police Force are far less than those for comparable positions in the commercial sector. If we are to attract and retain the best people for the job, the people we want to be looking after community safety, we need to be able to pay them what they are worth.

Paragraph (c) of this motion calls on the Coalition to support the Government’s measures to reduce crime. As I have outlined, the Government’s measures are not reducing crime. The figures from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research add truth to that statement. This is a Government that is obsessed with media spin. It prefers a good headline to a good result. I certainly cannot support the Government on this complacent motion of self-congratulation and I call on the mover of the motion to do the honourable thing and withdraw it before we put it to the vote.

The Hon. CHARLIE LYNN [11.40 a.m.]: I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This is a bill for an Act to require the Hurlstone Agricultural High School site to be retained for educational purposes. The objects of the bill are to ensure that the Hurlstone Agricultural High School site remains in public ownership and to limit the use of the site to that of a government school. Clause 1 sets out the name of the proposed Act. Clause 2 provides for the commencement of the proposed Act on the date of assent to the proposed Act. Clause 3 defines the Hurlstone Agricultural High School site and contains other interpretative provisions. Clause 4 specifies the objects of the proposed Act, as referred to in the overview I have just given. Clause 5 prohibits the Hurlstone Agricultural High School site from being sold, transferred, leased or otherwise alienated. Clause 6 restricts development of the site so that it can be used only for the purposes of a government school. Clause 7 prevents any development of the site from becoming a project to which part 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 applies.

Hurlstone Agricultural High School is a selective high school of excellence located in a diminishing green belt on the south-western fringe of the Sydney metropolitan area. The origins of the school are steeped in our history. It began in 1878 with a vision by John Kinloch to establish his own school, the Hurlstone School and College, named in honour of his mother. The original estate lay in the vicinity of Hurlstone Park, Ashfield. John Kinloch was one of the first graduates of the University of Sydney. Financial hardship eventually forced the sale of the college to the New South Wales Government, which saw the value and benefit to the community of an agricultural college. Visionaries such as John Kinloch have long since departed the ranks of this once proud party.

The Hurlstone Agricultural Continuation School was reopened in 1907 and commenced with one pupil. By the end of the first year it had 30 students. The student population grew to 148 and the school subsequently moved to a 330-hectare property at Glenfield, which was part of an original land grant to the convict James Meehan. The school took possession of the property in 1926 and has educated rural leaders, agricultural scientists and farmers ever since. Today the school has a student population of 967 from metropolitan, regional and rural areas of New South Wales. The Hurlstone Agricultural High School has a proud alumni, a proud heritage of service to the nation and has achieved academic excellence in agricultural education.

According to the prospectus of the school, in 1920 its students nobly upheld the honour of their school in the Great War—156 boys, who represented 54 per cent of the student population aged 18 years and over. Ten of those boys never returned. In World War II the students answered the call again. During the war 844 boys fought with Australian and British forces, with 68 making the supreme sacrifice for our freedom. One of these men, Corporal John Edmondson, tragically was killed while fighting in Tobruk. He was the first Australian to be awarded the Victoria Cross in World War II. The Edmondson VC RSL Club in Liverpool commemorates his memory and his sacrifice for nation. The proud spirit of Hurlstone is reflected in the words of the school song, which was penned in 1912:

Come, gather round, ye Hurlstone lads,
And sing with might and main;
‘Tis here we learn our dairy work
And how to sow the grain.
‘Tis here we learn our orchard work,
To spray, and prune, and drain,
‘Neath the eye of the good old boss of Hurlstone.

Hurrah! Hurrah! For the plough, the harrow and the hoe
Hurrah! Hurrah! For the wheat in a waving row,
And when we’re out upon our own,
The good results will show.
What we have learned at dear old Hurlstone.
We’ve soldered in the plumbers shop,
And shaped the sheets of tin;
We’ve hammered nails and blunted planes—
A craftsman’s skill to win;
And often after ‘ragging’, the office we’ve been in,
So well known to all of us at Hurlstone.

You ought to see our football team,
When they start kicking goals;
They score the tries and tear it in
With all their hearts and souls,
While on the field the other side,
Lie ‘dead’ in countless shoals,
When the Blue and Gold play up for Hurlstone.

We’ve sought the mighty liver fluke,
And learned about its ways,
And how it is, and why it is Merino wool it pays,
And faced with aid of microscope
The fierce Amoeba’s gaze
In the modern science room at Hurlstone.

And here’s to those who’ve gone before,
To fortune and to fame, Old Boys in far Gallipoli
Who made for us a name,
And in the years that are to come
We hope to do the same, for the honour of
The dear old School at Hurlstone.

It would be a sad indictment of the character of any member of this Parliament who would contemplate a vote to sell off the proud heritage of Hurlstone Agricultural High School to property developers for 30 pieces of silver. As a former soldier, I say there could be no greater insult to the memory of Corporal John Edmondson, VC. It begs the question whether anything is sacred to this mob, which is desperate to stay in power for the sake of staying in power. The Hurlstone farm is a vital resource for the quality teaching of agriculture. The decision to sell the land is based on the notion that the school has surplus land. However, agriculture involves practical experience; you cannot teach it out of a book. Students need to be able to smell, see and feel what it is like on a farm in order to be good at it.

Best practice suggests that 160 hectares can sustain 127 cattle; Hurlstone Agricultural High School has 118 cattle. It also has 76 sheep, 29 goats, 58 pigs, three alpacas and 248 poultry. The 115-hectare farm is fully utilised at slightly above recommended stocking levels. Land and animals are linked to specific husbandry and agricultural education outcomes. Hurlstone agricultural farm has no surplus land. The entire farm is valued and used for educational purposes. If the land were sold, the school would no longer function as it does now; the school would stagnate.

No doubt the Treasurer is using eastern suburbs logic in his fire sale of our public asset. We know he lives among the elite in Sydney’s wealthiest and most exclusive suburbs, many of whom have made their millions from property development. Many are generous donors to the Labor Party. The Treasurer’s boundary between east and west is Sussex Street. Westies live on the other side of the divide. The Treasurer does not mind mixing with these types for the odd photo opportunity, but they would never be invited to rub shoulders with his rich and powerful friends around Vaucluse and Rose Bay. If there is one position that will get you on the social A-list in Vaucluse and Rose Bay, it is that of Treasurer. Money is the language of the eastern suburbs and status is assessed by how much you have or how much you control. How you got it does not matter much.

The blood of the former Premier and former Treasurer had barely been cleaned from the carpets in Sussex Street when the present Treasurer got the call. Now he has made his mark: the State’s economy has been trashed by the highest-spending Government in New South Wales history. Its last budget was a shambles because it could not deliver in its own party the numbers needed to privatise the power industry. The Treasurer put together a fire sale of public assets that included the Hurlstone Agricultural High School at Glenfield. He rubbed salt into the wound by adding that students in western Sydney and rural New South Wales would have to walk further to and from classes each school day. It was heavy stuff. He got to speak in the Legislative Assembly. He was on television and radio. He was on the eastern suburbs A-list—speaking to double-A people about the triple-A rating. He jetted off to New York at the pointy end of the plane just as it all began to unravel. The Premier was told that the westies were revolting.

The Treasurer agreed, but the Premier thought he did not fully understand the message so he had to prick his bubble by telling students that they could catch a bus to school. Then the shadow Treasurer and former shadow Minister for Finance, Mike Baird, took a closer look at the Treasurer’s fire sale of the Hurlstone Agricultural High School. In his reply to the Treasurer’s mini-budget on 3 December, the shadow Treasurer said he was amazed to hear that the State Property Authority, which is our articulate expert in this area, did not have input in determining the valuation of the property. He advised that a critical amount of more than $800 million for all the public assets in the fire sale had not been verified by the Government’s experts, who had no involvement in the process. The Government’s own advisers say that they will not be able to sell 140 hectares, as they have been telling the public. The most realistic assessment is that they will be able to sell only more like 50 hectares, which will deliver only a fraction of the expected revenue included in the now-disgraced mini-budget. The black hole left by the Premier’s backflip on school bus passes is now Eric’s abyss. It is clear that the Treasurer’s figure of $800 million was a SWAG, which is an old Army acronym for scientific wild-assed guess!

If that was the Government’s figure late last year, one can only guess what the property now would be worth, as we plunge deeper into the worst recession that we have had since the Great Depression. This is not the first time that this Labor Government has tried to get its grubby hands on the school so that it could sell it off to wealthy land developers. In 2003, another eastern suburbs icon, the Hon. Andrew Refshauge, tried to flog it when he was the Minister for Education and Training. Back then he was reminded by some astute students of the school that his predecessor, the Hon. John Watkins, had “completely ruled the sale of the land out”. In a letter to the Hon. Andrew Refshauge, they wrote:

Hurlstone is a unique school, which continues to mould students into leaders of society. Our school prides its reputation on producing a well rounded student, that is offered the best education due to the many different facets of learning that are offered at Hurlstone.

The Hon. Christine Robertson may well mock what the students wrote to Andrew Refshauge, but they were genuine. I know she does not have a feel for western Sydney, but some of us who have lived there all our lives do. Further back, in 1995, a residential agricultural high school review into the viability of agricultural production of agricultural schools reported:

The consensus of the working party was that none of the farming ventures would ever be commercially viable operations, because of the small size and the use of unionised labour which is both inflexible and expensive. Each of the schools however, operate what could be considered a main farming activity; Hurlstone dairy operation [at Glenfield], Yanco piggery [in the Riverina] and Farrer stud beef cattle [at Tamworth].

The one common factor that each of those schools needed to fulfil their role as agricultural educators is land—not virtual land, but real land that can sustain crops and livestock on a sufficient scale for educational purposes. Our historic economic development has been underpinned by agriculture. We owe the standard of living we enjoy today to this vital industry. The combination of modern science, quality education and real experience will ensure that we continue to develop our leadership in this field, where demand threatens to outstrip supply because of climatic and population trends in the world in general and our region in particular.

Farmers have already been belted around by the drought. The New South Wales Government is making a bad situation worse by cutting the number of city students who will be exposed to agriculture. I should mention that students of non-English speaking backgrounds comprise more than 60 per cent of the student population at Hurlstone. In the working-class western suburbs there are a lot of students who would otherwise not be introduced to agricultural pursuits, but the Hurlstone working farm gives them that opportunity. But, more importantly, something of value that cannot be measured in economic terms is that our rural students from throughout New South Wales who reside at the school as part of their education have the opportunity of meeting students from a wide variety of non-English speaking backgrounds and to learn about their culture and language. They form lifelong friendships and mateships, which helps them to understand the diversity of culture in metropolitan Sydney. That is an experience that many students do not get in country towns. That is the unknown role played by the Hurlstone Agricultural High School.

The proposed sell-off of Hurlstone will have a serious long-term impact on our rural economy. It goes without saying that if we do not have good farmers and farming practices, which is what the Hurlstone Agricultural High School teaches, we will not have viable rural towns in many areas, due to their dependence on farming families. But rather than trying to geld the industry, as this short-sighted, quick-fix Government seems intent on doing, we should be seeking ways of enhancing it. We have land. We have the talent. All we need is the commitment from those who are charged with articulating our vision for the future.

Unfortunately the vision of the short-sighted political pygmies in this Government is limited to 2011. One has only to look at the pathetic response by the Government to an attempt by the Leader of The Nationals, Andrew Stoner, to debate in the other place as a matter of urgency the fire sale of the Hurlstone Agricultural High School. The Government had a great opportunity to explain how it would use the proceeds of the sale to add value to agricultural education in the State; but rather than do that, those political pygmies gibbered on about using the money to fund infrastructure upgrades at nearby public schools. Any funds left over would be reinvested in capital works in schools throughout the State or redirected to services in other agencies. That is Orwellian speak for marginal seat slush funding. It does not get any more pathetic than that.
If the current Government had been in charge when the First Fleet arrived, the convicts would have stayed aboard and put back to sea. The appointment of the new Minister for Planning, Kristina Keneally, by the new Premier, Nathan Rees, prompted speculation that she may well have been passed a poison chalice. On 29 November last year, the Sydney Morning Herald noted that the Planning portfolio had been plagued by controversy over the millions of dollars that hungry developers had poured into Labor’s coffers. While the new Minister might have been presented as a political cleanskin, she was also still on training wheels in regard to experience in running a ministry. The Sydney Morning Herald noted that after only 12 weeks in the job, she had already set alarm bells ringing.

A tight circle of Labor elders associated with former leaders Paul Keating, Bob Carr and Morris Iemma began to notice some uncanny parallels behind the scenes with the actions of her political patron, the Minister for Finance, Joe Tripodi, and his fellow hard Right powerbroker, the Hon. Eddie Obeid, in the months leading to Iemma’s downfall. They expressed concern that the new Minister looked as though she was about to repeat the planning mistakes of the past, when the suburbs in western Sydney were left without decent shops, schools and rail links for years. Major concerns were expressed about the fact that some of the State’s most powerful housing and land release agencies had been stripped of planning functions while Joe Tripodi was handed a big say in the management of more than $1 billion worth of strategic land around Sydney.

The Sydney Morning Herald noted that the well-regarded Growth Centres Commission, which was set up three years ago to kick-start new suburbs on the outskirts of Sydney and to make sure that roads, water and sewerage were delivered properly, has been absorbed back into the under-resourced Department of Planning. The new Minister advised the Sydney Morning Herald that she had consulted widely in her attempt to clean up the planning system—a task that former Minister for Planning, Frank Sartor, had commenced. Unfortunately, Frank was knocked off his perch because he rattled too many factional cages in the process. The Minister’s detractors in her own party accuse her of not only delivering much of the Tripodi-Obeid agenda—an agenda that was resisted by Morris Iemma and Frank Sartor—

The political links between this Labor Government and developers needs to be examined during debate on this bill. The Sydney Morning Heraldreported that the Minister for Planning has detractors within her own party who accuse her not only of delivering much of the Tripodi-Obeid agenda—an agenda that was resisted by Morris Iemma and Frank Sartor with fatal political consequences for both of them—but also of accommodating the Urban Taskforce, which is regarded as the most aggressively anti-regulation group of the developer mates lobby groups. Unlike associations in the industry, its membership is by invitation only. One can only imagine the joy of receiving an invitation from Joe and Eddie! The former Minister for Planning, Frank Sartor, regards it as the least credible of the property lobbies.

The co-founder of the task force is David Tanevski, who is a key player with a long association with Labor. He has been mates with Joe Tripodi for many years, and the two are veterans of past Labor branch-stacking battles. The director of the task force is Aaron Gadiel, a former chief of staff to both Joe Tripodi and the Hon. Eddie Obeid. The new Minister for Planning, Kristina Keneally, has a strong personal allegiance to Joe Tripodi because he delivered the numbers for her preselection. Her husband, Ben, was a friend of Joe Tripodi’s at the University of Sydney. The Taliban would envy this network.

The Sydney Morning Herald revealed that its sources believed Joe Tripodi, the Hon. Eddie Obeid and their front organisation, the Urban Taskforce, wanted particular developers outside the planning protocols of the Growth Centres Commission to jump the queue. One does not have to be a Rhodes Scholar to identify Labor’s developer mates. The invitation list for developer donors who attended a fundraising dinner in support of Labor mayor Nick Lalich when he ran for the seat of Cabramatta in the recent by-election is a veritable who’s who of Labor mates. Some of them could have walked straight out of the set of Underbelly! These developers have a lot of political clout in south-western Sydney’s Labor circles. Overdevelopment in western Sydney is obviously not one of the major concerns, but we have a responsibility to stop any attempt to rape our heritage and diminish the quality of agricultural education in this State.

Last year the Department of Primary Industries objected to a school being developed on prime agricultural land in Camden because of its detrimental impact on diminishing viable agricultural land. The department emphasised the importance of protecting scarce agricultural land from urban encroachment in the Sydney Basin. Unfortunately the Treasurer’s vision for a parcel of land like Hurlstone Agricultural High School is limited to the number of housing blocks and shops that his developer mates can put on it. The proposed development of the land will increase the burden on local infrastructure, which already is at capacity. Glenfield is already congested and does not have the infrastructure to cope with more development. Local hospital waiting times are painfully long and the M5 Motorway cannot cope with the daily demand.

The Government obviously has thought about the problems it faces in meeting its obligations to its developer mates and so organised a smoke and mirrors strategy to dupe the public in regard to its real intentions. Its first challenge was to create a perception that it is at arms length from the land grab. This was done by announcing an independent public inquiry. The second problem would be how to limit the collateral damage to their local parliamentary representative Dr Andrew McDonald. This would be done by arranging for Dr McDonald to call for the independent public inquiry, and get the Government to agree to his call. On 17 February the local Macarthur newspapers announced “an independent public inquiry into the planned land sell-off at Hurlstone Agricultural High School”.

True to form and right on cue, the local member, Dr Andrew McDonald, chimed in and said, ” the question of land use on the Hurlstone site has to be resolved once and for all”. Dr McDonald said he was confident that the Premier and the Minister for Education and Training, Verity Firth, would agree. And sure enough, during the following week on 24 February the Minister for Education and Training announced that both she and the Premier, Nathan Rees, would back Dr McDonald’s call for an independent and public inquiry. The Minister gushed that “whoever chaired it would be independent”. Yeah, sure!

We now know that the Government already had drawn up plans to have an inquiry into the sale, with the terms of reference and a draft list of names of participants having been drawn up in February—long before Dr Andrew McDonald proposed an inquiry and Verity Firth said, “What a great idea!” All that was missing from these documents was the outcome of the inquiry. Any Minister who needs a public inquiry to understand the value of an agricultural educational facility that is accessible to students from western Sydney and rural New South Wales is a dunce. The Minister’s assurance that the chair of the inquiry would be independent is pure folly. Such a person does not exist in this State. After 13 years of Labor rule, under the ruthless influence of Joe Tripodi and the Hon. Eddie Obeid, any such person either has been gelded politically or they are completely compliant with the outcomes that Labor wishes to achieve. We know that the Government’s spin doctors would have monitored the local media to see if the locals had swallowed the subterfuge of a so-called independent inquiry. No doubt they would have been disappointed at a posting from “Independent” on the website, who advised:

It seems like this inquiry has been put together to save Andrew McDonald not Hurlstone. How unusual for an inquiry to have an ‘investigation’ arm to it. Where will these experts come from? Will they be truly independent? Why, when the sale was first announced did then government say that it was the sale of ‘surplus’ land? Now the school is going to be ‘compared’ to other selective schools, James Ruse, Farrah and Yanco to ensure they are 21st century whatever that means? I don’t know of one public school that you could consider 21st century. They simply do not have the funds to have 21st-century facilities. It would seem now the school has demonstrated that there is no surplus land they want to find a method to sell Hurlstone. This government can not be trusted. They have lied and deceived this State for far too long and this witch hunt has been designed to allow the local members to stand up and say look at what I got for you. Well we have one message to the government. Hands off our farm and hands off this local greenspace. Hurlstone is not for sale and if one inch of this land is sold then Andrew McDonald and his government can expect it to be an issue at the next election.

And this one from Darlusz:

Rather than sell the farm, how about improving it, and making it an educational resource for schools from all around Sydney to visit. Bus students in from urban schools for a day of education on the farm! This country is built on agriculture, we should be encouraging kids in urban centres to learn about it, and experience it, without travelling for hours to see a real farm.

I do not know Darlusz. I do not know if Darlusz is a he or she, and I do not know where he or she lives. But I do know that Darlusz has displayed more commonsense on this issue than the entire caucus can muster as a collective. If we want students to achieve excellence in our public education system, we should take note of what they have to say, and it is obvious that they are against this proposal. An organisation called Team Macarthur has been heralded as a new power group within the dysfunctional Labor Party. The group comprises the member for Macquarie Fields, the member for Camden, the member for Campbelltown and the member for Wollondilly. If they want to represent their constituents, they can stop the sale by walking into the Premier’s office and saying, “It’s not on.” They did it with electricity privatisation—members opposite did it—and they can do it with Hurlstone school. The question we must ask is this: Do the members of Team Macarthur have the intestinal fortitude to walk in and stop this fire sale and protect the small amount of green belt we have left from Labor’s developer mates? It will be interesting to see whether they turn out to be the men of Macarthur or they scurry away as the mice of Macarthur. I tend to think it will be the mice of Macarthur.

I challenge those members to stand up and take on the Treasurer. The Treasurer’s experience of farm products is a boutique supermarket in Rose Bay, and he thinks Centennial Park is extensive quality farmland. That is all he has got. I challenge the men of Team Macarthur to stand up to the Treasurer and the Premier and stop this land grab and this donation to their Labor mates. Normally there are two sides to most arguments but that is not the case with the Government’s plan to sell off the Hurlstone farm. I challenge the Government to provide details of any community benefit or any moral justification for the sale. There will certainly be no improvement to agricultural education, which is the raison d’être of the school.

There is obviously no heritage value in the farm or any value in practical agricultural education in the eyes of the Treasurer. Obviously the Government does not see any value in protecting the last remnant of the once famed green belt separating us from Sydney’s ugly urban sprawl. This is just a grubby cash grab in the finest traditions of the New South Wales Labor mates club. The sale is bad for education, bad for agriculture and bad for the local community. I call on members to support this bill and save Hurlstone farm from Labor’s greedy developer mates.

Debate adjourned on motion by the Hon. Rick Colless and set down as an order of the day for a future day.

HURLSTONE AGRICULTURAL HIGH SCHOOL SITE BILL PART 1
HURLSTONE AGRICULTURAL HIGH SCHOOL SITE BILL PART 2

The latest magic pudding is the daddy of them all – forty seven thousand seven hundred million dollars so that you can download movies in the blink of an eye!  That’s over two million dollars for every man, woman and child in Australia or around seven million dollars for each family.  We know that it takes around 25 years to pay off a mortgage of around half-a-million dollars.  Based on this calculation we are about to be saddled with a 200 year mortgage!  The pundits might well say ‘thank you Kev – you’ve got my vote’.  Their kids, grand-kids and great-grand-kids will have a different view.

That’s if it works of course.  Kev said it would only take 4.7 thousand million dollars for a national broadband system during his Kevin ’07 campaign.  That figure has now increased ten-fold to 47 thousand million dollars.  Given the propensity for budgets to blow out the debt we are about to be saddled with is mind-boggling.

Families paying around $50 for a monthly internet connection better start to plan for a monthly bill of at least $300 when the magic pudding turns out to be an illusion.

There is no doubt that increased Broadband speeds are necessary in a global economy.  But technology is moving at such a pace there is no guarantee that Kev’s grand plan of ‘fibre to the home’ will not be obsolete before it is finished. The business model, funding projections and the validity of the technology are all dodgy at this stage.

Kev’s promise of a computer for every student does not give much hope for the government’s ability to manage projects in this area.  Most are still sitting in boxes because it costs more to wire them up and load the necessary programs than the cost of the computers.  Many will be obsolete before the school has the budget to take them out of the carton!

A new army of taxpayer funded cyber-crats is about to be raised to mix Kev’s latest magic pudding – snake-oil is sure to be a favourite ingredient!

Planning for Election Day is akin to a sophisticated military operation.  Candidate brochures, How to Vote cards and corflute signs reduce complex feedback from polls, surveys and focus groups to a single slogan; friends, relatives and supporters of candidates are allocated to various polling booths;  Scrutineers are briefed; and polling booths are decorated with candidate paraphernalia. 

At 8.00 AM the first voters arrive to be met by a line of polite candidate supporters all vying to get their How to Vote card into their hands with one last verbal message ‘Vote 1 for Joe Blow – he (or she) will fix NSW’ – before they walk the final few metres into their polling booth. 

Voters react differently to the gauntlet they face. ‘Thank you’ is the most common refrain.  ‘How many bloody trees did you cut down for this’ is popular.  ‘They’re all a mob of bastards’ is not uncommon.  Within a few hours all candidate supporters have got to know each other and there is much friendly banter but every now and the then they all brace themselves, ‘Uh, oh . . . here comes one – he looks like one of yours’ is a defensive refrain before everybody cops an earful of abuse about bloody politicians as ‘he’ tears up one card and refuses all others.  Point made!

But the real battle for political representation has been fought well before Election Day as candidates ‘work the numbers’ in their respective political parties to win preselection.  Competition for winnable seats is fierce and at the end of the day the person who has the most supporters within their Party wins.  It is not a career path for shrinking violets.

But shrinking violets, and everybody else can have a say in who represents them.  All they have to do is join a political party of their choice, join the debate, and get involved in the process.  If they wish to take the next step all they have to do is work hard to convince their fellow Members that they are best suited to represent their interests in Parliament.  It’s called grassroots democracy.

Unfortunately most Australians prefer to comment rather than commit.  Such political apathy makes it easier for so-called ‘political hacks’ to get elected because the decision has been made well before Election Day.  All we have to do improve the quality of candidates is get involved in the political process earlier and commit to a Party, and eventually to a candidate, of your choice.  It’s much more effective that whingeing about the system!

The heart of the town, Argyle Street, is as pleasant as any other in the country. Historic buildings, interesting shops, gourmet restaurants and street-walk cafes provide a wonderful ambience for both residents and visitors.

Camden is a geographical hub between the world’s most beautiful harbour-side city, the spectacular Blue Mountains National Park, the historic Southern Highlands and the seaside resorts of the South Coast. It is the most desirable address in Australia.

Our civic leaders and town planners are entrusted with the task of ensuring the historic integrity of the area is not violated by unseemly developments.

Recent developments and renovations in Argyle Street have uplifted the shopping experience. The new wine bar at The Exchange is better than similar establishment in the Sydney metropolitan area – because it is in Camden!

Regrettably the two supermarkets that bleed the most money from the town are in the two grottiest buildings. City based executives of the two establishments are obviously more interested in the dollar value of customers than the social value of their clientele.

Any proposal for either of these two corporate monoliths to relocate and build a shopping mall in the vicinity of Argyle Street must be resisted by our civic leaders and town planners. If people are attracted to the common, sterile, impersonal atmosphere of an air-conditioned mall with franchisees being screwed to the max then let them visit nearby regional shopping centres.

The removal of government services from Camden by the State Labor Government has been a cruel and short-sighted act. We no longer have an RTA office. We no longer have a maternity ward at our hospital. Our Ambulance is not allowed to deliver patients to the emergency ward. Our Police Station is set to go. One has to question why the Labor government has abandoned the town and left it vulnerable to developers to fill the void?

Recent revelations on the cosy relationships between Labor mates and developers has led to media speculation that the new strategy for the worst Labor government in the State’s history is based on ‘dollars for decisions’. Let’s hope Camden does not become a victim of this disgraceful trend.

Over the past 12 months the term ‘working families’ was included in every utterance from Kevin 07. His promises to introduce ‘fuel-watch’ and ‘grocery watch’ were literal. All he did was watch them go up . . . and up . . . and up! Not only did Kevin 07 watch them go up – he set up two taxpayer funded organisations to watch them as well! We are slowly learning that the devil is always in the detail with Kevin 07. After all he never did say he would bring them down – all he promised to do was actually watch them. That box has now been ticked. Thank you Kev!

Perhaps we need to initiate ‘Kevin Watch’ to see if we can work out what he really means. ‘Working families’ has recently disappeared from his jargon. The new catchphrase is ‘GFC’ – for those who are not into acronyms this means ‘global financial crisis’. Neither Kev, nor his echo Julia, utters a phrase without mentioning the adversity we surely face from the looming ‘GFC’ !

Their clever subliminal message is that the recession we are about to have in ’09 is not going to be their fault – it’s going to be due to the ’GFC’! How could it be their fault? They have just showered pensioners and young families with billions of dollars in handouts for Christmas. They have committed to an ‘ETS’ (an Emission Trading Scheme) to appease the chattering classes and are about to restore union power back to the bad ol’ days.

The $20 billion dollars left in the bank courtesy of the Howard-Costello government is almost gone. It took eleven years to build and just eleven months to spend. The polls suggest it has worked beautifully for Kev.

Unfortunately the inept NSW Labor Government has taken the form of the grim reaper. NSW is in crisis and will remain so until the next election in 2011. Until then business will continue to flee across the border to Queensland, commuters will sit in chronic traffic jams and stand in crowded trains and patients will be turned away from emergency wards. There is not a single sugar coated lolly left in Labor’s jar in NSW. Unfortunately for Kev the incompetence, mismanagement and corruptions surrounding the worst Labor government in the history of the State was around long before the term ‘GFC’ entered into their political lexicon.

Australian’s are a resilient bunch though. They will ignore the inevitable ‘whine from Kevin 09’ and get on with the job of conquering whatever adversity they have to confront. They have done it before and they will do it again.

In the meantime may I wish all readers of the Camden District Reporter a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year – or as Kev would say, MX and HNY!

The Carr government was elected on a lie to halve hospital waiting lists (they are now longer than ever) and to lift the tolls on the M4 and M5 (which never happened).

Long overdue reforms to our taxation and industrial relations systems by the Howard-Costello Government brought an era of unheralded prosperity to the nation. The NSW government was awash with money as the property boom went from strength to strength and record revenues were received from gambling taxes. Labor celebrated in style with the Sydney Olympics and other high profile events earning them entry to the big end of town.

Tuxedo clad Labor hacks rubbed shoulders with celebrities at trendy functions as they wallowed in the trough. There didn’t seem to be any end to the good times.

Big ticket items were announced with great fanfare, then re-announced with even more fanfare. They had no shame.

Infrastructure investment was put on the backburner because it is not near as sexy as the big ticket items at the big end of town. Railway tracks, suburban roads, rattling trains and bricks and mortar for schools, hospitals and police stations were ignored because they didn’t have the ‘wow’ factor that Labor Ministers and their hangers on were quickly addicted to.

The global meltdown brought the chickens home to roost. Heads began to roll as they scrambled out of their bloated taxpayer funded troughs for a reality check.

It was a political bloodbath. The Premier resigned. The Treasurer jumped before he was pushed. The Health Minister was dumped. The Planning Minister was sacked. The rats were scurrying between the deck chairs.

The State is now left with a 40 year old former garbage collector as Premier. He is steering the ship of State and doesn’t have a driver’s licence. The treasurer is a Labor hack and union bruvver who lives in the exclusive Eastern Suburbs.

The mini budget was their first attempt at establishing economic credibility. Media commentators, business organisations and the community have described it as the worst ever. A sham of epic proportions.

They have shamelessly robbed struggling families of their back to school alliance, made kids walk further to school, increased taxes, cancelled essential infrastructure projects and slugged long-suffering motorists.

The public response to the mini-budget was best summed up with the front page headline in the Daily Telegraph ‘The people of New South Wales have spoken – just sack yourself Premier and call an election!

The Carr government was elected on a lie to halve hospital waiting lists (they are now longer than ever) and to lift the tolls on the M4 and M5 (which never happened).

Long overdue reforms to our taxation and industrial relations systems by the Howard-Costello Government brought an era of unheralded prosperity to the nation. The NSW government was awash with money as the property boom went from strength to strength and record revenues were received from gambling taxes. Labor celebrated in style with the Sydney Olympics and other high profile events earning them entry to the big end of town.

Tuxedo clad Labor hacks rubbed shoulders with celebrities at trendy functions as they wallowed in the trough. There didn’t seem to be any end to the good times.

Big ticket items were announced with great fanfare, then re-announced with even more fanfare. They had no shame.

Infrastructure investment was put on the backburner because it is not near as sexy as the big ticket items at the big end of town. Railway tracks, suburban roads, rattling trains and bricks and mortar for schools, hospitals and police stations were ignored because they didn’t have the ‘wow’ factor that Labor Ministers and their hangers on were quickly addicted to.

The global meltdown brought the chickens home to roost. Heads began to roll as they scrambled out of their bloated taxpayer funded troughs for a reality check.

It was a political bloodbath. The Premier resigned. The Treasurer jumped before he was pushed. The Health Minister was dumped. The Planning Minister was sacked. The rats were scurrying between the deck chairs.

The State is now left with a 40 year old former garbage collector as Premier. He is steering the ship of State and doesn’t have a driver’s licence. The treasurer is a Labor hack and union bruvver who lives in the exclusive Eastern Suburbs.

The mini budget was their first attempt at establishing economic credibility. Media commentators, business organisations and the community have described it as the worst ever. A sham of epic proportions.

They have shamelessly robbed struggling families of their back to school alliance, made kids walk further to school, increased taxes, cancelled essential infrastructure projects and slugged long-suffering motorists.

The public response to the mini-budget was best summed up with the front page headline in the Daily Telegraph ‘The people of New South Wales have spoken – just sack yourself Premier and call an election!

Individuals get elected as independent members or as part of a political party. They party they choose is one that represents their beliefs and values. Many are influenced by their parents who pass on their values as part of the nurturing process of raising a child.

It is important for people who are committed to building better communities to be involved in the political process. There is an old saying that we can only have good government if we have a good opposition. This can only happen if people from all segments of our society get involved with the party of their choice.

Within the party system there are those who aspire to political office and those who wish to make a contribution and ‘do their bit’. The competition for pre-selection in a party system is highly competitive. Candidates need exceptional people skills, a good intellect, values in line with the political philosophy of their party, a clear vision, energy, guile, charm, experience, a demonstrated commitment to their community, and most importantly – an abundance of common sense.

These talents and skills can be acquired both within and outside the political process. A successful political party would seek a good balance in this area. The strength of the Labor Party comes from their affiliation with the trade union movement. Representatives hone their skills in the rough and tumble of union ‘politics’ and are well prepared for a role as an elected representative when the opportunity presents itself.

The first tier of government i.e. local councils, is another area where political aspirants acquire skills for advancement. The number of local government councillors sitting in our State and Federal governments today would attest to this.

Today’s communities are diverse and demanding. Federal and State government policies are comprehensive and complex. Individuals entering local government as independent members can be easily overwhelmed with the pressures placed upon them. Those who belong to a political party have access to research, advice and support that is not available to independents.

Checks and balances in any system are important. This would lead to the conclusion that a balance of party representatives and committed independents would be a good result for local governments in NSW.