have on a false advertising campaign in order to convince the local population that all is well seems an extraordinary thing to do. However the Premier of this state plans to do just that. He is "tired of people talking it down".
Ummm.... hold on a moment. This state has the highest unemployment rate in the country. At 7.8% and edging towards 8% it is not something to boast about. Power prices are almost twice that as in a neighbouring state. Local business is choking in red tape and drowning in additional taxes.
The Premier knows all that. He also knows that the much lauded "submarine contract" is not the lifesaver it is being touted as. He knows that the "tourist attractions" of the Tour Down Under and the Clipsal 500 are not going to save the economy - however much he tries to pretend otherwise. If that little town in the north where they make steel really does go under - and it could - then it will not be the fault of the federal government but the fault of the state government. Of course the federal government will get the blame - just as they got the blame for the demise of the car industry.
The state is almost a basket case - almost. We could turn things around but it will take major policy changes - the sort that a government beholden to the union movement won't want to make.
We don't go to an election until the 17th March 2018. The "fixed term" of parliament was considered to be a good idea but there are many who must now regret it. The proposed advertising campaign will of course be subtle, or not so subtle, political advertising for the government. It will be just far enough away from the polling date for them to claim it is an "information" campaign - and just close enough that they hope it will persuade people to once again vote for them.
I can think of better ways to spend hundreds of millions of dollars. Almost certainly everyone I know will feel the same way - even the party faithful.
So, what would you spend say 100 million dollars on if you were the Premier of an almost basket case state?
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Not so subtle - my phone rang right on the dinner hour last night and it was a recorded message from the Premier! I don't know the content of his message because I hung up straight away because a) it was dinnertime and I am not wasting time on non-urgent rubbish like recorded messages from politicians at one of the busiest, most precious times of the day; and b) I assumed it would be the campaign which you described - trying to sell the idea that the state's employment outlook is great. (I found out this morning it was about a very local train crossing issue.)
What a load of nonsense. Who do these people think they are kidding?
Your ire reflects mine on the amount of money and energy wasted on such advertising and campaigning. The premier is in office now, the new federal government has been sworn in, now do you think they might like to get to the job of actually governing the state and country responsibly?
I am tired of them announcing another new expensive project when they haven't even finished off the ones they started a few years ago; e.g. electric train system (but don't get me started on that issue!) Then they blame someone else for the unfinished business. If they say they can't afford to finish one project, why start proposing another?
If the politicians had stopped campaigning long enough to think about the job at hand (the future of the country) and bothered to look further than their short-term electoral cycles, they would have realised what the people had known long ago - that manufacturing has been in demise in western economies for many years now. This is not a 'state' thing - it is a global trend. People I know who worked in manufacturing could see this demise coming 20 years ago.
The governments have failed Australia in being totally unprepared for this scenario.
One must question the source of advice to the government and question the behaviour of ministers who dismiss true expert advice.
Trying to convince the population that 'all is ok' and 'to move on' to the next thing resounds the message 'nothing to see here' as the shame is attempted to be swept under the carpet. Meanwhile they remain blind to the amazing talent and entrepreneurship potential we have within our communities and can't understand why we lose them all overseas.
I can hear Monty Python's Mastermind sketch: "Next subject: the bleeding obvious!"
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