It’s not about the climate, it’s about the cash
January 30th, 2009 at 01:23pm
An interesting article (I’m hesitant to call it an article considering that more than 50% of it is a quote from Chief Turnip Jon Stanhope, however I’ll let them off the hook as the article proves a point, and it can be horribly difficult to abridge the unwieldy sentences of the Turnip) from CityNews this week in which Jon Stanhope calls on the federal government to allow paid parking for commonwealth public servants:
CHIEF Minister Jon Stanhope will be campaigning hard this year to get paid parking introduced into the parliamentary triangle and all areas managed by the Commonwealth.
It’s one of his agenda items for 2009 to get a positive outcome for the ACT in relation to equity in paid parking.
Ahh yes, “equity in paid parking”, the cornerstone of his re-election campaign…or to be serious for a moment, an instant election-loser of a phrase. Thankfully for our esteemed Turnip, much like his amazing school closures, it’s quite early in his term and people will forget by the time 2012 comes around.
On the subject of the school closures, this sentence really does sound familiar:
None of us like paid parking, but this is a question about equity between employees and it is also about the Commonwealth Government accepting the responsibility and take the hard decisions that need to be taken in relation to [..]
I seem to recall Jon Stanhope going on about “the tough decisions” after his government so badly mismanaged the budget that they felt a need to close 39 schools.
Anyway, back on topic, what are this week’s tough decisions about pay parking in aid of? The Turnip’s sentence continues with the answer…
[..] climate change and the development of sustainable transport systems
Jon, let me ask you this. Why do shopping centres have parking spaces dedicated to employees when a heap of bus services run past said shopping centres? It’s not because people unpack their fold-up cars as soon as they hop off the bus, it’s because they drive to work despite the paid parking…any why do they do this Jon? Because your government continues to mangle the bus service.
I have some more ideas which I should write down about the bus network in Canberra…but my top thought at this moment for the Chief Turnip or anyone in the ACT government who will listen (and that probably narrows it down significantly) is this: Why is Gungahlin excluded from the intertown service?
Back on topic again, and my point is that people will continue to drive simply because it is more convenient to do so. This paid parking for commonwealth employees nonsense has nothing to do with climate change, and everything to do with raking in more money…who knows, if they put in enough meters, they might be able to afford another awful sculpture by the side of the road.
Samuel
Entry Filed under: Canberra Stories,Global Warming,Samuel's Editorials
