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Politics and activism transport

The quest for policies

Some of the letters in the papers (particularly the local paper) are obviously from cranks, but many are worthwhile, and this one in this week’s Moorabbin Glen Eira Leader just perfectly enunciates what I suspect a lot of people are thinking:

Libs need to state policies

IN RESPONSE to the letter by the Liberal candidate for Bentleigh, Elizabeth Miller (Opinion, February 2), I would like to point out the following.

As a public transport user I am well aware of the quality (or the lack of it) of our public transport system.

As an IT professional I have known all along the myki system would be a disaster.

However, what I do not know is who I should vote for in November. The Labor government was unable to improve public transport, or public health services, despite being in power for more than a decade.

The Liberals, on the other hand, haven’t proposed a single real alternative on any issue.

I haven’t even heard about a Liberal candidate for Bentleigh until now.

Stating the obvious and simply saying, “they are bad”, is really not enough.

What do you propose, Ms Miller?

How exactly is your party going to improve our transport? Will you have the courage to say that myki was a horrendous disaster and, yes, the money was wasted but we should just stop it now before we waste even more? What steps will you take to improve the health system? Will you look into the ridiculous stamp duties on property purchases before you announce some other grant?

What is the point of giving with one hand and taking with the other?

The list of issues is long and as a voter I would like to see some definitive answers.

Anna Heifetz,
Bentleigh East.

The opposition has stated one clear policy in the realm of public transport: that of security on every railway station, every night, which while expensive, would certainly go a long way towards alleviating fear of crime on the train network.

Other than that — well let’s hope that before too long they announce what else they’d do if elected, in that portfolio and all the others.

By Daniel Bowen

Transport blogger / campaigner and spokesperson for the Public Transport Users Association / professional geek.
Bunurong land, Melbourne, Australia.
Opinions on this blog are all mine.

One reply on “The quest for policies”

That’s quite apparent here in NSW, too. The state Liberal party seems to have a policy of, “Well, everyone hates state Labor more every day, so if we keep our mouths shut, we’ll win just by being the other option.” The only thing I’ve heard them say is that light rail and metros are a wast of money and they’d like to build more heavy rail (but I don’t really trust them – they’ll probably do a study and decide it’s too expensive once they’re in power, like Labor’s promise of abolishing tolls on the M4 and M5). The parallels with the Victorian Labor party at the end of the ’80s are striking. The party is diving in popularity, and they’ve put a woman in as their leader, but “she” will lose the election through no fault of her own. In fact, Keneally herself is very popular right now – it’s too bad for her she’s got the leadership when everyone hates the party.

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