Monday 17 May 2010

A wasteful website to blow the whistle on

With an election in the wings, the LNP have launched a website to focus on what they see as the State Labor Government's mis-management of money.
They're focusing on financial waste and our rather chunky $84b debt (that's $14m interest every single day), and you wonder why the the Far North is missing out on State investment.
"Help hold the Government accountable, reduce waste and start the long effort to get Queensland's finances back on track," the website pronounces. "Mismanagement has resulted in loss of Queensland's AAA credit rating, a record $85 billion debt, increased charges and taxes, and a firesale of public assets."
They're asking for you to dob in the government with tip offs and stories where you have spotted money being wasted. Health, water, road, and schools are all targeted.
I can think of a few around our neighbourhood...

2 comments:

Jane W said...

start with the truck load of cash at the over-priced public hosuing sites they've planning all over the region and the state... and let's not forget the rego fees and pouring money on stupid survveys!

Syd Walker said...

I propose huge savings in the amount of money wasted each year fighting what is now the the fifth decade of the late President Nixon's unwinnable 'War on Drugs'.

I can't claim all this expenditure in Queensland is completely wasted. Perhaps some of it isn't. The sums involved are very substantial, as they support plenty of well-paid State-funded jobs: extra police, extra lawyers, magistrates and prison staff, extra social workers, counsellors and the all the rest of Illegal Drugs Industry gravy train. I imagine helicopter maintenance crews do well too.

But where is the public good in all of this? Why should Queenslanders be required to pay for this anti-social nonsense any longer - in the absence of any serious intellectual justification?

Specifically, what benefit does the Cannabis Prohibition Industry bring to Queenslanders?

If the issue is 'saving lives', how about a complete and rigorously policed ban on angling by the seashore, which seems to kill more Queenslanders on a single windy week-end than Cannabis has killed in 40 years?

Over to our fiscally prudent State Opposition, who have a real chance on this issue to (a) save large amounts of money (b) enhance civil liberties and (c) expose massive Labor Party hypocrisy.