Two weeks after Labor launched its campaign, and ten days after writs were issued, the 2014 Victorian election campaign is about to get serious. You may have thought you’d seen it all and heard it all – leaders kissing tourists, kicking footballs and campaigning with kith and kin. We’ve had attack ads, big spending initiatives, [...]
Reading the pendulum At the last Victorian State Election in November 2010 the Coalition secured a narrow majority in the Legislative Assembly, winning 45 seats to the ALP’s 43. The first electoral redistribution for 12 years in 2012-2013 has delivered a very different electoral landscape or pendulum. Some electorates were abolished, several others were radically [...]
Three years of scrimping and saving have produced a war chest full of cash, and the political necessity for a State Budget with lots of headline grabbing, big dollar infrastructure initiatives. Those looking to find fault with the 2014-15 Victorian budget at first blush have zeroed in on those areas which appear to have received [...]
Rather than providing a rundown on all the new spending and revenue items from the 2013-14 Victorian Budget, which will be well covered in the mainstream media, we have captured some of our team’s key thoughts on what this Budget means, and what’s to follow over the remaining 18 months of the first term of [...]
Much of the focus in the media realm of late has centred on the revenue side of public finances – both in expected revenue shortfalls, and the options available for government to shore up its tax base. The Federal Government is the biggest circus in town, so that’s where most interest lies, but there are [...]
The recently released Committee for Melbourne’s report Moving Melbourne – A Transport Funding and Financing Discussion Paper on options for funding level crossing upgrades is a useful contribution to the debate about identifying and meeting Victoria’s infrastructure needs. The report makes the case for vital road rail grade separation works across Melbourne which would contribute [...]
Last Saturday’s Melbourne by-election was both a devastating blow for the Greens and a much-needed morale boost for Labor. The Greens sets themselves up for humiliation. In the lead-up to polling day their former federal leader Bob Brown opined that “we’re headed towards a very, very important outcome, a litmus test for the history of [...]
The key feature of the Victorian 2012-13 Budget is that it effectively extends the large savings strategy which was embarked upon in the December 2011 Budget Update. Since December 2011, projections for growth in the Victorian economy have slowed even more which has resulted in lower revenues – state taxes and GST. Consequently, the Victorian [...]
The announcement in last week’s NSW state budget of the privatisation of Port Botany will bring renewed focus on the future of the Port of Melbourne. Following the sale of the Port of Brisbane late last year, the Port of Melbourne will be the last of the major eastern seaboard container ports to remain in [...]
That politics and government have become tawdry forms of entertainment for the masses is a malaise that raises genuine questions about the health of Australian political discourse. The now seemingly weekly Newspoll commands such attention and lengthy analysis with dedicated column inches, airtime and so on giving play to the human drama of politics but [...]
