Liberals on the rampage
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Public transport is high on Kennett's hit list. Every public transport employee has been offered voluntary redundancy and the government expects to get rid of 7000 of the 18,667 workforce through this. But more will be sacked as unions have been told that the workforce is to be halved. New timetables with fewer services come before the end of the year and fare rise come in January. Buses are to be privatised and tram conductors eliminated.
At the same time the government has announced plans to build a new $140 million freeway in addition to $500 million worth of freeways planned by the previous Labor government. After Sydney, Melbourne has the worst smog of any Australian city and it is unlikely that Australia will make its interim target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1988 levels by the year 2000 if public transport continues to be cut back.
Funding to Landcare, the conservation department and the Environment Protection Authority have all been cut back.
But ecological vandalism is only to be expected from Jeff Kennett whose comments on the environment include: "We've locked up the forests and now they are potential fire risks" and "Australians are scared to find out what is under the top soil ... We must explore it and if we find something that's extractable then we'll work out how to get it..."
Pat McNamara, a member of Kennett's cabinet proposed a unique solution to the Greenhouse problem a couple of years ago: "The Greenhouse effect can be tackled by logging more native forests because they believe that only young tree produce enough oxygen to make some impression in the surplus of carbon dioxide".
In case anyone thinks that these are simply Philistines, Kennett's crew have underlined their consciously reactionary character by embarking on a campaign of name-changing. Among the first casualties was Gariwerd, the official co-name for what is now once again declared the Grampian mountain range.
The justification for Kennett's reactionary rampage is budgetary. They charge the previous Labor government with "profligacy" and "mismanagement" especially in the areas of education, health and public transport. But community workers in these areas, environmentalists and welfare workers say that the previous government was not spending enough in these areas.
Kennett presents the $32 billion state debt as proof that Victorians are "living beyond their means" but as Kennett's attacks are aimed primarily at the most deprived, working people and others on low-income the question is not one of generally belt tightening or sharing the pain. Kennett's program is aimed at a blatant transfer of income and services from the majority to business and the rich minority, as is shown by the $100 tax on ruggling pensioners as well as owners of mansions for the same amount. An alternative solution to the debt problem, primarily caused by business speculation, is to increase taxes on the rich and corporations. But such a solution has yet to make an appearance on media monopoly-manipulated public agenda.