Howard Lolly Jar Getting Opened

I listened to this on the ABC Yesterday. Classic. The politics of envy and how to get reelected at all costs. If you want better public service, better move to a marginal constituency. John Winston Howard has lots of goodies for you. I have added some thoughts in bold.

MARK COLVIN: Now everybody wants one.

Yesterday, in yet another intervention in State (Read: Bloody Labor Losers) affairs, the Howard Government announced it would directly fund a public hospital in Tasmania. The Prime Minister said the move was a trial and, if successful, the model will be extended to other parts of Australia (Depending on how the polls go as we head into the elections). Now, of course, hopefuls are beginning to form a queue that leads directly to the door of Treasury in Canberra.

But Peter Costello appears keen to limit the discussion to the Mersey Hospital in Devonport.
(Read: The attempt to keep Braddon's Liberal member, Mark Baker, in Parliament would, it seems, cost taxpayers a minimum of $120 million over the next three years. That could get pretty expensive if this strategy is applied to all the marginal seats.)

Chief Political Correspondent Chris Uhlmann reports.

CHRIS UHLMANN: The Prime Minister clearly wants everyone to know that his decision to spend $40-million a year to keep the Mersey Hospital in Devonport open may not be a one off (Read: We are going to be looking at proposals like these for each of the marginal seats.)

JOHN HOWARD: What I said yesterday and I repeat it now, very deliberately, is that we will see how this intervention works out, and if it does work out, it could well be that we do the same thing in other parts of the country. (Read: The States, run by Labor are Bloody Useless and couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery)

CHRIS UHLMANN: And the Health Minister, Tony Abbott, is all but handing out his phone number.

TONY ABBOTT: If people believe that the State Labor Governments are mismanaging local public hospitals and if they would like to see a Commonwealth funded community controlled public hospitals in their area, let them put their hands up and say so. (Read: We all know that the State Labor Governments are corrupt and bloody useless)

CHRIS UHLMANN: Liberal, Kym Richardson holds the most marginal seat in the country, Kingston in South Australia. He's heard the Government's message and has a hospital picked out.

KYM RICHARDSON: I particularly have a hospital, which is called the Noarlunga Hospital, which hasn't even got an intensive care unit. The emergency section itself is underfunded and is in dire need of a total revamp. (Well he would say that, since his seat will be the first to fall if the current polls are to be trusted. )

This looks very like the plan Labour has implemented in the UK, to target public funding in areas with the greatest voter appeal.

This strategy is also being pushed in the areas of: indigenous affairs, industrial relations, water, education, health, all areas where State Governments (all Labor at this time) are or have been in charge to a greater or lesser extent.

This is clearly one of the areas that the Centraliser in Chief and Principal Election Wedge Strategist John Winston Howard plans to fight the election. No detailed plan, no budget, no consultation. Smacks of desperation, but it will have local appeal.

I hope young Kevin and his band of merry men have an effective response as Howard paints a vision of Australia with Mark Latham clones running the State and Commonwealth Governments. Wooooo! Scary Labor is coming to eat your children. This is very ugly politics and signals the real beginning of the election campaign.