Is Australia in recession even though it avoided technical recession with the 0.4% growth in the GDP in the March quarter?
Can the Government's stimulus package and other policy initiatives at least take some credit for this, the Prime Minister's uncontrollable smile suggested the other day?
Mr Rudd and his team, as well as our own Sydney politicians such as Malcolm Turnbull and Joe Hockey seem to have no regard for the plight of the people of NSW! Questions like the above, and many others like those simply mean very little to the long suffering people of NSW!
NSW has technically, effectively, mechanically, realistically, electronically and practically (use whatever term you want) been in recession ever since Bob Carr realised it was time to leave the sinking ship and resigned!
After Bob Carr's untimely desertion, there were very few Labour politicians left in town who were prepared to take on the job as a front and simply act as a rubber stamp for the powerful deal makers in the out of control NSW Right.
Morris Iemma eventually did agree to take on the job, and so has Nathan Rees. Both Men did so because they realised the position was well beyond their natural political ability or ambition, and therefore an offer they could not refuse.
There was however a major difference between the two Premiers. Morris Iemma, having won an election on his own, and his ambitious but explosive and unpredictable Treasurer Michael Costa, decided to take on the "Powers that be" in Sussex Street and do something to save NSW (and they were banished as a result). Nathan Rees on the other hand, having witnessed the demise of Iemma and Costa, knows his position is simply too compromised to be able to do anything without his masters' approval.
There is also a distinct intellectual gap developing. Michael Costa was in his own way and relative to most other politicians in the State a revolutionary if not a visionary. He had the intellectual capacity to recognise major problems the state faced and the capability to develop policies to address them. Morris Iemma on the other hand, was supposed to compensate for Costa's lack of pragmatic negotiation skills, and confrontational and abrasive personality in dealing his old mates in Sussex Street. At the end, Iemma's over reliance on his backers and trusting personality gave the deal makers the perfect opportunity to plot and execute his (and Costa's) eventual demise, which started when they blocked the electricity privatisation, and finished with on the surface clean party room rebellion against Iemma and Costa.
The deal makers, knowing that their bloodied hands had made them unelectable then chose various paths. Some took up plum party jobs in Canberra, some took up upper house positions with an eye on the Premier's job, and some continued their back room interference. This time however, they were a lot more calculating in their choices. They killed any chance of political or intellectual rebellion by installing the novice Nathan Rees as the rubber stamp Premier and one of their own as his Treasurer. The state of public hospitals, education, transport and policing are all as poorly managed as they have during the two previous Premiers' governments.
And here we are today! Michael Costa is still the only major public figure who is prepared to raise what he sees as the problems infesting the NSW Government and Labour Party! He still does not suffer fools gladly and shows his abrasive courage in his pungent pen these days.
And as for the others? the backroom power brokers of NSW right have the State and its Premier where it suits them: on their knees. NSW opposition is taking the easy route of riding the public tide to an election victory and is therefore staying out of the way. The politicians in Canberra are obsessed with the merits of the stimulus package, how to define recession and argue about who knows the obvious facts of Economics 1.01 best! ....And the people of NSW are meanwhile dealing with this very long recession in quiet desperation.
Now you see what I mean? Whether Australia avoided recession only in technical terms or not means very little when you live in recession happy NSW and are Governed by the NSW Government.
Rick Samimi's Commentary
