Bracks fills Kennett mould
When Victorian voters dumped the Kennett Liberal Government in 1999, Labor's Steve Bracks marched into parliament to a fanfare with promises to fix the Kennett mess. The corrupt and secretive Kennett Government had carried out a scorched earth approach of privatisation and handouts to big business and made the State's economy heavily reliant on revenue from gambling. It cut a swathe through public schools and hospitals, undermined workers' compensation and privatised the Office of the Auditor- General, taking away its powers to make the Government's dealings with business publicly accountable. Four years on and Victorians have seen Bracks fit snugly into the Kennett mould. The Premier last month granted himself the right to veto "politically sensitive" information from being made public and the ability to block submissions to parliamentary committees from government departments and agencies. Committee members said that submissions have been censored and sanitised this year and that the veto guidelines, which themselves are not available to the public "are written from the perspective of restricting information". All departments and agencies must notify the Premier's office of every submission and submit them for the Premier's scrutiny and approval. The Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) is currently trying to get its hands on a report by accounting firm KPMG on the impact of the Bracks Government's $35 million of funding cuts to the State's welfare agencies. VCOSS is having to use freedom of information laws as the Government refuses to release the report, saying it is "commercially sensitive". The report cost taxpayers $296,000. Cath Smith of VCOSS has demanded the release of the report to at least show the public what they paid for. The cuts will hit one in four Victorian families who use essential services such as children's services, drug counselling, housing support and family support. The Bracks Government is also spearheading the drive to public- private partnerships (PPPs), a major method of privatisation. It involves such things as the contracting out of the construction and management of public infrastructure, with taxpayers taking all the risks and paying for the projects and the private sector pocketing the profits. Treasurer John Brumby last week proudly announced that since the Bracks Government's introduction of PPPs in 2000 there have been eight projects in the State worth a total of $700 million, including an upgrade of the Wodonga waste water treatment plant, the Spencer Street Station overhaul, Melbourne' s new County Court, the Docklands film and TV studios and the Berwick public hospital. There are further PPPs in the pipeline worth more than $2 billion. To top it off the Bracks Government is all for a free trade agreement with the US.