The dead tree version of the Canberra Times reports a surge in young ACT voters is putting pressure on senator Gary Humphries. Electoral Commission figures show the ACT has experienced a dramatic rise in the number of first time voters and that there are more of them proportionally than in other parts of the country.

Story has Malcom Mackerras predicting the shift in the voting demogratic would see Greens candidate Kerry Tucker win the second seat and Labor’s Kate Lundy the first.

Gives Getup much of the credit, but gives no figures.

Yah booh sucks Howard and your unfair electoral laws. Let’s hope they bite you in the bum!

Paul is quite correct in that C’wlth revenues to States/Territories has dropped in “real terms”. Another way of looking at it, is the proportion of State budgets from C’wlth revenues. Since 1930s, or WW2 etc, I think its been around 40-50% of most State govt budgets. You can get more historical info/data on methodologies if you search on terms like ‘Vertical Fiscal Imbalance’ (VFI) and ‘Horizontal Fiscal Equity’, (HFE) and ‘GST Revenues’ in addition to those Paul mentioned, from places like the aph.gov and ato.gov and treasury.gov websites, and most state govts. They are buried, but locatable.

I work in the C’wlth side of things. Another complicating factor is the 8 jurisdictions don’t all agree on how it should be allocated or accounted for, and are in competition with each other, and will fiddle their own books to “prove” their own cases. For example, NSW and other larger eastern states, have suggested the GST should be distributed on simple per capita population basis. Thats fine for NSW, it has the biggest population so would always get the lion’s share. WA argues that its mining sector is contributing far more to national GDP than others, so it should get more in return. QLD ditto with various industries, including tourism. NT and Tas have much poorer economies and smaller populations, but greater proportion of “disadvantaged” populations, (eg aged, Indigenous, unemployed, low SES etc) and often much higher-cost service delivery mechanisms etc with unlucky geography etc, and have little power at the table with their Big Brothers. so just cry, and beg a lot, from the neighbours. SA in my experience has always tried to play “honest broker” – being in the middle, so to speak. Sometimes these state=specific issues are taken into the accounting in a kind of State “weighting”, which the larger eastern States then say is “unfair” to them. The arguments are as old as Federation, and will continue.

That said – it has still been cut more severely under the Coalition fed govt, but as Paul mentions through specific targeting of particular service SPP areas, as in health, welfare, disability services etc.

Part of it is major public funding for eg Medicare, PBS is growing and blowing out greater than GDP. Part of that is globalisation, and outside of the control of the federal govt (tho it likes to pretend it is in control). Australia cannot stand up against major multinationals, in energy, medicines, agriculture and many other things.

Part of it is ideology, Liberals have always supported privatisation, and the individual taking responsibility. Thats what they stand for. Thats what people vote for them for. Give the individual tax-cuts and they dont need public funded services. They can buy their own services, and if they can’t afford it – well *tough*.

Hence the humungus billions in the tax rebates for *mandatory* private hospital health insurance (that many are forced to pay for, but can’t afford to use? Go figure). That funding is totally uncapped, and just keeps growing as $billions in corporate welfare for insurance companies. Consumers dont see that money, the companies do. Leave a little aside for a Charity “safety net” for the lazy undeserving bludgers who wont get off their butts and work-for-the-dole.

Hence cutting public health, public education, welfare services etc… starving State govts of funds for these services, is standard routine-by-the-textbook Liberal ideological platform – forcing the States to either cut their own services, (eg grants to Local Govts for road maintenance, so we have families of 5 dying on a collapsed road that nobody can afford to maintain), and/or raise their own taxes, and/or privatise and outsource as much as they can in service delivery (particularly welfare services, like DOCS, State Public Housing, policing, Legal Aid etc) – sell off assets, electricity power grids, or whatever, to make up the shortfall.

To me, and it is just my view, that so many State govts have continued to maintain decent services (at least in urban areas) without too many draconian measures is pretty good. But the crunch will come sooner or later. Having Liberal State govts would have hastened the process ,much more quickly to full privatisation to a two tier system for *everything*.

And as for nostalgia, I can remember as a young kid, the 1972 “Its Time” campaign jingle – and was surprised to hear that it had been voted into the Top 10 Aussie TV Ads of all time! LOL — up there with the vegemite song

As for journalists, I vote for Denis Shanahan to get the inagural “tony Snow Award{” for right wing bias. Andrew Bolt would run him a close second.

JOHN Howard's industrial laws were branded a shambles last night, with the revelation that half of all wage deals checked by the Coalition's workplace watchdog have failed the "fairness test" and been sent back to employers for correction.

The Workplace Authority confirmed 26,833 agreements had been knocked back for failing to comply with minimum standards since the Prime Minister introduced the fairness test in May.

Once deals are rejected, employers have 14 days to fix problems or have them permanently cancelled, with employees entitled to backpay.

Figures released yesterday by Workplace Authority chief Barbara Bennett show an enormous backlog of 142,000 individual and collective wage agreements -- almost 80 per cent of all those lodged -- are still waiting to be fully checked.

The high number of wage deals either rejected or awaiting checks comes amid complaints from employers that the Government's fairness test has become a bureaucratic nightmare.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22733701-601,00.html

Glen: that spells curtains mate, there is no ‘uncle Howie’ rabbit this time around. I think Newspoll will bounce back to 55-45 or 56-44 next week.

Am I the only one that gets freaked out when Glen calls Howard “uncle Howie” or “Uncle Howie”?

If Howard wins the election will he start calling him “Mein Fuhrer”?

Either way, there’s something a big Dr Strangelove about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iesXUFOlWC0