Yesterday, we had this damning report about the damage done to public transport by the ALP over the past decade or so:
In the past decade, journeys on Sydney’s rail system have increased by only 6.6 per cent.
The comparable figure in Brisbane was 39.5 per cent, and in Melbourne, the increase was a staggering 58.6 per cent.
In Brisbane, where billions of dollars are being spent on a dedicated busway network, bus patronage increased by 152 per cent between 1997 and last year. In Sydney it fell 2.1 per cent.
Rees has done nothing to turn this around, so far, except suggest that some public transport projects won’t proceed. How hopeless. Oh, and appoint a specialist spinner to his personal office.
And, today, terrible stories about the hospital system:
The chairman of the hospital’s Medical Staff Council, Dean Fisher, said patient safety was at risk. He said the situation was so desperate that three weeks ago a doctor paid $770 out of his pocket for a few days’ supply of reagent – a substance needed for blood tests – because the supplier, Abbott, had refused any more credit to the Greater Western Area Health Service.
The NSW ALP hates the northern beaches area of Sydney and the new hospital it announced with great fanfare two years ago now seems to have been shelved.
Meanwhile, Nathan ‘do nothing’ Rees has written off the seat of Ryde (also here) at this saturday’s byelection, which is just a recognition of reality, I guess, but it doesn’t show much courage. And it’s more bad luck for the candidate Nicole Campbell who was bumped out of the way last year to make way for *star* candidate Maxine McKew at last year’s federal election. McKew doesn’t seem to have felt too much pressure to help out Campbell in return:
Labor party sources have accused her biggest drawcard, the local federal member Maxine McKew, of going missing in action in the Ryde by-election, for fear of being tarred with the NSW Labor brush.
Now Ms McKew has been accused of deserting the very person whom she displaced in 2007 to make her own way into Parliament – despite relying on the support of a host of ministers for her own historic victory over John Howard in Bennelong.
“She has certainly given Ryde a wide berth,” a party source said yesterday.
There must now be real doubts about Rees’ political courage as well as his abilities. His premiership, so far, has been marked by bluff, bluster, spin and more of the same old sheer incompetence that has marred the ALP Government for years now.
And then there is the farcical search for Rees’ mystery confidant.
He also admits speaking to his childhood friend – who he refuses to name – at least once or twice a week for advice on affairs of state.
“All I’ll say is she an old school friend who lives in northwest Sydney. I’ve know her for 30 years. She has a mortgage, kids and she and her husband are like everyone else trying to raise a family . . . She is gold.”
I wonder if she gave him the tip on the ‘black panther’.
