Choices, choices …..

Voters in NSW might think they’re overwhelmed for choice at the forthcoming State election, with these 2 contenders:

but look at what we here in Canberra have to choose from come election time:

versus

Iemma might be head of a NSW government managing the state extremely incompetently and with more than the odd whiff of scandal, but is likely to win the election next month simply because the Liberal opposition is far more interested in fighting amongst itself than presenting a viable alternative to the Labor government. Peter Debnam has just outright failed to make any connection with voters. An election which should have the Liberals almost unbackable favourites will result in the ALP holding onto government.

I didn’t see the debate between Iemma and Debnam on Friday, but when I heard on Sky News that their viewers thought Debnam was the winner, I thought Morris Iemma must have said to himself “shit, just when I thought things couldn’t get worse …”. Debnam’s lack of success since taking over as opposition leader from John Brogden would have seen him (just like the North Sydney football team) high fiving and celebrating victory for winning the coin toss.

But here in the ACT, we have Labor’s Jon Stanhope on the one hand, more interested in establishing himself as an international statesmen and leader of the socialist municipality of Canberra, than actually providing efficient and effective government services. Having squandered shitloads of tax revenues when the local economy was booming over the last several years, his government has had to face up to a downturn in the land market in particular (less land sales, less taxes), and has taken the axe to schools and public transport among other things. Also, he has recently been savaged by Coroner Maria Doogan over his government’s handling of the 2003 bushfires (destroyed 500 houses, 4 people killed). However, the Liberals have barely laid a finger on him politically. There are only 7 Liberals in the local Assembly - but they are heavily divided, and basically factions of them hate each other’s guts and they just cannot work together. Bill Stefaniak is a stopgap Liberal leader at best, probably got the job by being in the Assembly the longest and was less hated than the other contenders. Given the poor performance of the Stanhope government, the Liberals ought to be well placed to do well at the next election - but it won’t happen with the current rabble!

Its actually quite depressing standing in the voting booth, like at our last election, seeing a page full of candidates, and struggling to think of 5 (I think that was the number we had to vote for) that were even worth voting for.

Technorati : ACT Politics, Bill Stefaniak, Jon Stanhope, Morris Iemma, NSW Politics, Peter Debnam, election