Redrawn boundaries, more road money, and general silliness
- I am miffed at missing so many cool events last weekend, most notably PodCamp Perth. I guess I’ll just have to live vicariously through Flickr.
- I had been hoping that with discussion of firebrand union bosses and the question of ratifying Kyoto making headlines over the weekend, The Economy ™ might have stayed in the shadows for a few days more. I was wrong. I’m hesistant to call the election outcome, but the way the Liberal Party is clinging to “low interest rates! strong economy!” at the expense of other messages does have me wondering.
- Remember the one-vote-one-value arguments shortly after the State election in 2005? Yesterday the WAEC released new electorate boundaries based on the changed laws, with one MP per 21-ish thousand voters. Basically, there’s a few more metro seats (e.g. Mount Lawley) and a few less rural seats (e.g. lumping Esperance and Boulder into Eyre). There were reports yesterday of panic within the Liberal and National party rooms about who’ll be preselected where, but I have to say the new boundaries look sensible, and contrary to early sky-is-falling claims the Mining and Pastoral seats are no more huge than they used to be. And with both conservative parties still incapable of showing any competence, with or without these changes they ain’t looking good for 2009.
- Over in Melbourne, the poor diddumses who run the trains have decided they can’t handle the crush of peak hour (what with it always cropping up unexpectedly and all), so they’re trying to bribe people to take earlier services by dropping fares to zero. Um. Somehow I think calling it a “stupid band-aid solution” doesn’t quite cut it …
- And finally, Federal Labor have taken their photocopiers to last week’s announcement by John Howard of money for highway upgrades around Perth, throwing in an extra $200m for good measure. For proof that these announcements are no more than pork-barrelling, consider that neither major party has promised serious money to railways or seaports, anywhere.
You really should have come to Podcamp – it was such a curious mix of enthusiasts (like me) and the real geeks (like Duncan Riley) – and mixing pots produce the most interesting new recipes.
I know! There were some really awesome presentations I was looking forward to (including yours!) and quite a few people I was hoping to speak to.
But then it was 7am Saturday and I realised my immune system isn’t as strong as it once was