As a non-Victorian resident, I had hoped that a change in premier might bring some sense to the Victorian government over the Murray Darling basin takeover. Sadly, it would appear that John Brumby also suffers from the delusion that Victoria owns the water and is just as willing as Steve Bracks to waste a heap of taxpayers money on a high court challenge.
It is unfortunate that a bunch of stubborn politicians can’t see past their state border, and see that handing control of the Murray Darling basin to the federal government is in the interests of all Australians.
2UE’s John Kerr is now on holidays for four weeks, which will include a week (or thereabouts) broadcasting from a boat off the coast of Harwich, as part of the 40th anniversary of the criminalisation of British subjects being involved in pirate radio.
During John’s absence Clive Robertson will be broadcasting on weekdays, with 2UE’s News Director Clinton Maynard running the weekend show.
I rang John this morning to wish him “bon voyage”:
It’s now official, Melbourne Cup Day is a public holiday in Canberra, and has been named “Family and Community Day”.
Needless to say I am bitterly disappointed by this, and will be writing a letter to the MLA responsible for this travesty, Andrew Barr, to express my disappointment.
I’m not going to repeat my reasons for being disappointed about this right now, but I made them very clear in an editorial I wrote in April.
As fas as I’m concerned, the answer is yes, the water does not belong to Victoria, it belongs to everyone, and the only authority with the power to create laws to affect national property is the federal government. Apart from that, there is a precedent in place which will allow the federal government to take over control anyway, so all Victoria are doing by mounting a high court challenge is wasting an awful lot of taxpayers’ money.
That being said, I’m only one voice in many, so I look forward to your responses.
The last poll I ran had the following results:
Does it annoy you when Samuel doesn’t write something he said he was going to write?