Dictator Dan may be gone, but his legacy lingers on in the smoking rubble of Victoria’s economy. It’s the second time in the past quarter-century that an electorally popular Labor government has left Victoria all but bankrupt. Indeed, Andrew’s legacy of debt outsizes even Cain’s — but there’s no Jeff Kennett waiting in the wings to restore the state’s finances.
All they’ve got is a sub-par Mayor Quimby and his puffy-pants taxes.
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas has stunned the property industry and even his Assistant Treasurer, choosing an industry breakfast ahead of Jacinta Allan’s first parliamentary day as Premier to announce a new tax.
Speaking to a room full of industry stakeholders at a Property Council Breakfast on Tuesday, Mr Pallas flagged the introduction of new legislation, which will see taxes on vacant residential land expanded to include all of Victoria.
The Australian
If you build on it, they’ll tax you for that too, no doubt. In fact, if you so much as look at a block of land, they’ll tax you.
Victorians best take the Beatles’ advice and declare the pennies on their eyes, when they die.
But, hey, at least you don’t have to worry about level crossings any more, right? Totally worth it.
With just ten days to go, the “Indigenous Voice” referendum is dominating the news more than ever. Will Australia dodge a bullet and reject our home-grown effort at imposing co-governance? The polls are looking good, but the only poll that counts is the one on voting day.
Meanwhile, with pre-poll voting opening this week, the Yes campaign are up to some dirty tricks already.
The Australian Electoral Commission has warned the Yes23 Voice campaign that some of its signs could be potentially misleading and demanded it move them away from polling stations.
Some Yes23 signs – which say “Vote YES” – use the same purple colour as the commission’s signs, which have the words “voting centre” on them and are used to inform voters about polling booth locations for the Voice referendum.
The commission said in a statement late on Monday, the first day of early voting, that it had become aware of signs that could “potentially mislead voters”, who might see the official purple colours and become confused about whether a Yes vote was perhaps mandatory, or encouraged, by authorities […]
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson posted on social media: “The Yes campaign has been caught red-handed using signs the exact same colour as the AEC, trying to mislead Aussie voters. [Prime Minister Anthony Albanese] talks a lot about ‘misinformation’. Will he demand the Yes campaign stop using these confusing and deceptive signs?”
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time this cheap trick has been tried — and a familiar name has cropped up.
In 2019, the Victorian Liberal Party faced scrutiny for signs containing Liberal messaging in Chinese language using colours similar to the commission’s.
The boss of the Victorian Liberal division at the time was Simon Frost, who is now Yes23’s campaign operations director.
The Age
Yes23 are trying to hand-wave it all away as just a misunderstanding on their part, but back in 2019, Frost was forced to admit that he’d done it on purpose to trick some voters.
Signs telling voters in key electorates to put the Liberals first were designed to look like they came from the independent electoral commission, a key party figure admits […]
“You intended to convey the impression that this was an AEC corflute, didn’t you?” Lisa de Ferrari, SC, acting for the challengers, asked former Victorian Liberal Party director Simon Frost in the Federal Court in Melbourne on Wednesday […]
“Yes,” Mr Frost replied.
The Age
Whether as a result of the dodgy signs or not, the candidate they were supporting, Gladys Liu, indeed got elected in 2019. As good a reason as any to try it on again?
Meanwhile, one of the most effective spokespeople for the No campaign, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, isn’t letting up. While the Yes campaign continue to divide Australians, bellowing “racist!” (as usual), the No campaign is proving the Great Uniter.
Flanked by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton following pre-polling in Perth on Tuesday, the Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman claimed people with whom she had been speaking had said “their Australian spirit is being reignited”.
“They are sick of the name calling, gaslighting, the emotional blackmail that has gone on as part of this campaign.”
Senator Price said there was a common theme among Western Australians to maintain a “united Australia” in the midst of such a divisive campaign […]
In reference to Australians who have recently immigrated to Australia, Senator Price said it didn’t matter if we were on this continent “60,000 years ago or six months ago”, asserting all were all Australians.
“It doesn’t matter about your racial heritage and the problem with this divisive referendum is the fact that it seeks to create different levels of citizenship and I can’t stand for that,” she said.
Even pro-Voice are admitting that the whole Yes campaign has been dreadful and divisive.
Indigenous voice to parliament supporter Frank Brennan says the referendum has “created a hell of a mess” and race relations in Australia had gone backwards.
The Australian
Good job, Albo.
Still, at least Albanese is uniting Australians in one important way: more and more are waking up to the fact that Mr 32% is a gormless socialist hack who can’t even do race-baiting well.
