The SA Politics Thread

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Aidan
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Re: The SA Politics Thread

#451 Post by Aidan » Mon Mar 10, 2014 1:41 am

monotonehell wrote:
Aidan wrote: How can you seriously claim we didn't lose anything? Before the change, City Loop buses ran to the train station every 20 minutes (and a few years before that, every 15 minutes). Now they don't run to the train station at all.
The tram took over that stretch of the 99's route. If and when the tram is extended it will replace the other parts of this bus route. Until then it's a 200m walk to the nearest stop or catch the tram.
No, the tram took over that stretch of the 99B's route (and every other section). And when they did so, the sensible thing would've been to redeploy the buses onto the 99C route to boost the frequency. Instead they let the frequency decline before ultimately taking it away altogether. There's few other buses on that part of North Terrace (partly due to some of them being routed down King William Street instead after Transfield couldn't keep to the schedule). And a 200m walk to a bus that only runs every half an hour is not a satisfactory alternative. I'm pro tram, but I don't think we should have to wait for the trams to replace bus routes before we get a decent service.
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Re: The SA Politics Thread

#452 Post by Aidan » Mon Mar 10, 2014 2:17 am

monotonehell wrote: The Liberal's current campaign is making big promises (with no details about how they intend to fix these things) regarding taxes, jobs, the cost of living, and so on.

In fact this is all in the letter I was talking about above...

The introductory paragraphs talk about the State debt:
I believe our State deserves better than record debt approaching $14 BILLION and a record deficit of $1015 MILLION this year. (capitalisation hers)

Because of Labor, South Australians will be paying $1 billion a year in interest from 2016-17.

South Australian families and businesses are suffering under the pressure of the nation's highest taxes, highest utility prices, falling business confidence and rising unemployment under the watch of the Weatherill Labor Government.

The reality is, for the last 12 years, the Weatherill Government has over-spruiked, under-delivered and mismanaged the State's finances.

South Australians need and deserve a government that sticks to the budget and lives within its means. South Australian families and businesses do this every week. With our Plan, the State's finances will return to good health and public faith in government will be restored.
Leaving aside that Weatherill hasn't been in charge of the Government for 12 years, as I can accept that they are largely the same government and the buck stops there. Leaving aside their coy misuse of the general public's misunderstanding of the difference between a household or business budget and a government budget...
No, it's far worse than that!

The Libs are lying to us about state debt.

They claim to have got their figures from the 2013-14 budget papers. Those are online so I had a look at them and I'd encourage others to do the same. The debt figure of $13.75 billion is gross debt, with net debt closer to half that figure.

And their claim of a daily interest bill of $2.6 million is A COMPLETE FABRICATION THAT THE BUDGET PAPERS DO NOT IN ANY WAY SUPPORT!

The state Liberals are lying to us, and the state Labor party are so clueless that they don't even seem to have noticed.
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Re: The SA Politics Thread

#453 Post by fabricator » Mon Mar 10, 2014 1:42 pm

Aidan wrote: No, it's far worse than that!

The Libs are lying to us about state debt.

They claim to have got their figures from the 2013-14 budget papers. Those are online so I had a look at them and I'd encourage others to do the same. The debt figure of $13.75 billion is gross debt, with net debt closer to half that figure.

And their claim of a daily interest bill of $2.6 million is A COMPLETE FABRICATION THAT THE BUDGET PAPERS DO NOT IN ANY WAY SUPPORT!

The state Liberals are lying to us, and the state Labor party are so clueless that they don't even seem to have noticed.
The state Liberals are always lying to us, they don't even have the guts to admit they are cutting funding to anything, instead using BS terms like "effective and efficient".
Spending money on things the state NEEDS is never a bad thing, given much of this debt is due to the new hospital (again explained in the budget documents) and we bloody well needed a new hospital, I for one would like to pass the motion, that the Liberal Party should go die in a plague pit.

What is interesting is Depreciation and amortisation climbs from (2012-2013) to $1.13 billion (2016-2017), so depreciation is a bigger expense than interest. See Page 12 Budget part 3.
That's a lot of write downs, RAH perhaps ?
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The SA Politics Thread

#454 Post by Aidan » Mon Mar 10, 2014 2:40 pm

fabricator wrote:
Aidan wrote: No, it's far worse than that!

The Libs are lying to us about state debt.

They claim to have got their figures from the 2013-14 budget papers. Those are online so I had a look at them and I'd encourage others to do the same. The debt figure of $13.75 billion is gross debt, with net debt closer to half that figure.

And their claim of a daily interest bill of $2.6 million is A COMPLETE FABRICATION THAT THE BUDGET PAPERS DO NOT IN ANY WAY SUPPORT!

The state Liberals are lying to us, and the state Labor party are so clueless that they don't even seem to have noticed.
The state Liberals are always lying to us, they don't even have the guts to admit they are cutting funding to anything, instead using BS terms like "effective and efficient".
Spending money on things the state NEEDS is never a bad thing, given much of this debt is due to the new hospital (again explained in the budget documents) and we bloody well needed a new hospital, I for one would like to pass the motion, that the Liberal Party should go die in a plague pit.

What is interesting is Depreciation and amortisation climbs from (2012-2013) to $1.13 billion (2016-2017), so depreciation is a bigger expense than interest. See Page 12 Budget part 3.
That's a lot of write downs, RAH perhaps ?
You're being far too soft on Labor. Far from being "BS terms", effectiveness and efficiency are crucial for the future of our state. Though they can be used as an excuse for cuts, their main purpose is to enable us to do more.

Spending money on things the state NEEDS is a bad thing when a better result can be achieved with less money spent. Our main unmet hospital requirements were in country areas - and they're still unmet. And while the RAH certainly needed upgrading, it didn't need rebuilding from scratch, and it certainly didn't need moving to an inferior location.

You're also being far too soft on the Liberals. The budget papers show the interest we're paying is $379m, which works out at $1.04m per day. The Libs claim the budget papers show we're paying $2.6m per day. They claim we'll be paying a billion dollars interest each year by 2017. The budget papers show a projected 2016-17 financial year interest bill of $742 million - and even that's misleadingly high as we'll be getting $205m interest back. So it's not like their normal misleading statements, dodgy opinions and statements of intent that never get fulfilled - it is an outright lie.
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Re: The SA Politics Thread

#455 Post by fabricator » Mon Mar 10, 2014 4:24 pm

Aidan wrote: Spending money on things the state NEEDS is a bad thing when a better result can be achieved with less money spent. Our main unmet hospital requirements were in country areas - and they're still unmet. And while the RAH certainly needed upgrading, it didn't need rebuilding from scratch, and it certainly didn't need moving to an inferior location.
I'm sorry Aidan, you're full of shit this time.

Ever notice how some people go into hospital and come out with something else ?
The RAH has sick building syndrome, basically some the illnesses and toxins have gotten into the airconditioning pipes, the fixtures, and even the brickwork and concrete itself.
Oh and it also contains a buttload of asbestos. All of this I've heard for years from people who work there, long before the new one was even talked about.

Hence the "upgrade" consists of stripping it all down to the bare concrete and cleaning everything. Then break out the jackhammers to install new pipe work and and upgraded (segmented) aircon system.
Patients at the RAH, might not appreciate the years of noise, dust and exposure to toxic substances.

Anyway to Hospital is under construction and nothing can change that, so shove your attitude.
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Re: The SA Politics Thread

#456 Post by Aidan » Mon Mar 10, 2014 7:01 pm

Jackhammers??? Struth, fabricator, haven't you heard of water saws?

Hospital infection is usually the result of the hygiene and cleaning standards being inadequate. Building design can be important in its prevention, but pathogens in the brickwork and concrete is a cleaning problem not a design problem. There's no doubt that some parts of the RAH do need replacing, but the decision to completely replace the whole thing was not the result of objective analysis but rather the recommendation of a British consultancy firm with a history of dodgy recommendations of that type. I posted more details at the time.

But as you say, it's too late now. So why bother? Actually there are some quite good reasons. Firstly do we really want to reward a government that spent so much more than it had to? Secondly, there are a lot of other things where efficiency is important and the government is spending money inefficiently. South Road springs to mind (more on that in a day or two).

As long as what the government can do for us is limited by money, efficiency is extremely important.
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Re: The SA Politics Thread

#457 Post by jk1237 » Mon Mar 10, 2014 10:45 pm

Aidan, wasn't it proven that the cost of building the new hospital was more cost effective and efficient than trying to fix the existing RAH

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The SA Politics Thread

#458 Post by Aidan » Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:02 pm

jk1237 wrote:Aidan, wasn't it proven that the cost of building the new hospital was more cost effective and efficient than trying to fix the existing RAH
Not properly. Durrow Health Services Management claimed it was, but it was never subjected to proper scrutiny, and being British they have a track record of providing misleading evidence that favours the construction of new hospitals.

Edit: I explained a few years ago exactly why the claims couldn't be relied upon
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Re: The SA Politics Thread

#459 Post by Waewick » Tue Mar 11, 2014 12:12 pm

exactly what did Jay expect to achieve by announcing unverified costings which show their spend lower that Liberals and them getting back into surplus quicker?

are they aiming for the idiot vote? is there that many people who would lap that up that could change an election?

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Re: The SA Politics Thread

#460 Post by Aidan » Tue Mar 11, 2014 12:38 pm

I haven't seen the details of the announcement yet, but the treating us like idiots seems to be bipartisan, and considering the irresponsible tax cuts proposed by the Liberals, I think Labor could well get us back into surplus sooner.

Meanwhile I've referred the Libs' lies about our interest bill to the SA Electoral Commission.
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Re: The SA Politics Thread

#461 Post by obituary resider » Tue Mar 11, 2014 1:00 pm

Rann was hell bent on doing the hospital, I doubt it wouldve mattered what any study/analysis/report said. It is important to note, however, that buildings have life spans (normally 50 years). I have no doubt that parts of the RAH wouldve been seeping all kinds of nasty toxins as well (this is a theory starting to gather a bit of momentum in architecture) and with the asbestos, a retro-fit wouldve cost upwards of $1.5 billion + blow outs + temporarily re-locating patients (a big one for me) + increased build time. The cost blow outs would also probably be more severe with a retro-fit as opposed to a new build. STILL, there is every chance it wouldve come in cheaper than the new hospital, maybe not by much though. At the end of the day, the most disappointing thing for me is that the state really was completely shut out from the whole process and Rann was really snooty in the way he completely ignored and shunned respected opinions that said the new hospital was not the way to go. If he thought that untrue he should've been throwing documents and studies at us, supporting his claim, but instead he just went about it in a 'holier-than-thou' kind of manner and completely disregarded the public. I blame that entirely on Mike Rann though. Weatherill, to his credit, seems to be more interested in community engagement.

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Re: The SA Politics Thread

#462 Post by obituary resider » Tue Mar 11, 2014 1:03 pm

On another (personally disturbing) note, I heard on the radio this morning that sportsbet has closed betting on the election predicting a liberal landslide... seems like its another win for the shallow, empty promises, non-truths and general political spin :(

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Re: The SA Politics Thread

#463 Post by obituary resider » Tue Mar 11, 2014 1:06 pm

Aidan wrote:I haven't seen the details of the announcement yet, but the treating us like idiots seems to be bipartisan, and considering the irresponsible tax cuts proposed by the Liberals, I think Labor could well get us back into surplus sooner.

Meanwhile I've referred the Libs' lies about our interest bill to the SA Electoral Commission.

Im curious as to whether that actually achieves anything?

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Re: The SA Politics Thread

#464 Post by Waewick » Tue Mar 11, 2014 4:16 pm

Aidan wrote:I haven't seen the details of the announcement yet, but the treating us like idiots seems to be bipartisan, and considering the irresponsible tax cuts proposed by the Liberals, I think Labor could well get us back into surplus sooner.

Meanwhile I've referred the Libs' lies about our interest bill to the SA Electoral Commission.
you might want to send in the recent costs provided by Labor.

currently getting smashed with holes everywhere.

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Re: The SA Politics Thread

#465 Post by monotonehell » Tue Mar 11, 2014 4:36 pm

Waewick wrote:...currently getting smashed with holes everywhere.
Care to link an example in the news? I cant find any reports of this.
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