Mangled Thoughts

We’ll do with a sharp chronology. First however, an exchange, Question Time, is on the one hand amusing, and on the other hand disturbing but confirms a number of conclusions.

Mr. Doyle, in view of Mr. Howard’s victory, commences a question on the Freeway with:

Mr DOYLE (Leader of the Opposition) ? My question is to the Premier. How was your weekend?
His question is to the violation of F.O.I.

In his reply Mr Bracks glibly states:

Mr BRACKS ? When we have net debt at $2 billion,

Straight from the horse’s mouth, the Cabinet has sunk the govt. into $2billion dollars of debt, over and above the the sheer amount of revenue it collects from this govt’s. fines, taxes, duties and sundry means, and the $2b it recieves in G.S.T. So, we have an indication as to the extent of this administration’s spending spree, which they continue apace. it should also be noted , late last year and early this year, one predicted unemployment will increase in Victoria due to the tax and spend habits of the Bracks led ALP administration. It is occuring, the lines of the unemployed are starting to build first where it can be expected to show up first, in rural Victoria.

Other preliminaries: the estimated charge for the highway is $1.2 b. According to the agreement with the Commonwealth Government, Vicotria would thus pay $600 million, the Commonwealth would pay $600m.

Sept. 1999 The the 3 wise monkeys jobbed the ALP onto the Treasury Benches. Next to many things occurring , real investment was surging in Victoria, that includes in rural Victoria. Govt. Debt was all but wiped out, the Kennett govt. was spending within its means and: and squirrelled away funds and building them for major projects which would fall due: thus eliminating drain on real taxpayers for funds if the Kennett led Coaltion Govt. and not been overturned in the parliament.

For the Scoresby Freeway, the Treasurer the Hon. Mr. Alan Stockdale had built ,to 1999, funds of $200 m., with gradual accumualtion to continue, timed for when the freeway construction is due and payments start to be incurred.

In other words, by the end of 1999, the Kennett had already accumulated in funds 1/3 of the $600m the Vicotria Govt. was expected to ppay under the terms of the agreement with the Commonwealth. It is a ready inference, by the project commencement time, A Kennett’ Stockdale led administration would have had the full charge already catered for and thus entailing no extra burden on real taxpayers.

November 1999, the Bracks led ALP administration, begins the continuing spending spree with, increasing payroll - the Bracks Govt. commenced hiring exponentially, by mid 2000, having accumulated current payroll expense plus the entailed long term liabilities of something in the order of about $4b per annum, as a very shrewd estimate.A simple calculation really, sum increase in payroll by adding up numbers hired multiplied by pay per unit, one might say.

Feb. 2002 The Expenditure Review Committe submitted business plans to Cabinet for the highway to be Tollway . The
date is curious.
The Expenditure Review Committee reports directly to Cabinet and is instructed by cabinet as raises
new expenditure proposals as well as monitoring incurred expenditures. The E.R.C. , in preparing proposals is
throughly briefed by Portfolio Budget Submissions and the Dept. of Finance. A crucial focus of the briefings and
the E.R.C’s work is financial analysis of the budget of the govt., that of what is proposed and the financial impact of new
proposals. As Opposition members observed, tollways ,as themselves plans submitted by E.R.C. were not a whimsical
of some junior, obscure bureaucrat, they are matters which are raised in Cabinet with the E.R.C. committee.

In view of the above, in view of the fact that the E.R.C. submitted a fully worked up submission to the Cabinet for
building the Scoresby highway as a Tollway, the inference is naked, the Bracks cabinet must have instructed the
E.R.C. to raise a proposal for tolled highway in 2001, the time frame for developing such a proposal is more than suggestive,
there is no other conclusion to be drawn.

The Cabinet, building on what the honourable members have so far furnished to Parliament, must have been considering
the Tollway plan from sometime during the course of 2001. The conclusion, they must have done so, compounds what
Mr. Doyle has demonstrated beyond any doubt, that Bracks lied not only in declaring a tollway was not raised as the plan
until after February 2003, but in declaring they had not been considered at all until after Feb. 2003. We can also push further
when the Bracks Cabinet first considered tollways, no later than sometime during 2001.

[ I’ll start posting and add as I write]

The E.R.C. document, detailing the plans for a tolled highway, is dated Feb. 2002 ergo, which
confirms the above conclusively, no iffs, no buts, just black and white , first hand Cabinet evidence to the above.

The mention of even Mary Delahunty, a Bracks’ Cabinet member and ministerial Chairman of the E.R.C. is bound up
with the above, has indicated in the lead item of yesterday. Not many, if any , in the Brack’s Cabinet are ignorant of the
facts opposed to the lies Mr. Bracks and Cabinet Ministers have told inorder to, deceive Parliament and the general public.
Many in the Cabinet were party to it right from when Cabinet first concidered it, during no later than sometime in 2001,
and of those, many have remained responsible for the planning of the highway as a tollway.

Nov. 8, 2002 Premier on Friday, 8 November 2002

in the ABC studios. During that debate Ian Henderson said to the Premier directly:
Would you categorically rule out putting any more tolls on new or existing roads?
And Steve Bracks said: Yes, I will.

February 2003 Bracks declared, the highway will not be a tollway, it will be a freeway, prior to the State election for the
Victorian Parliament.

April 2003. A matter of only a mere few weeks after the election, Bracks announced:
14 April 2003 the Premier announced there were to be tolls on the Scoresby freeway
The next day, the 15th of April, Mr. Bracks declared publicly, on 3 AW, on Neil Mitchell’s show
: Two weeks ago, talking to you, I had not at that stage, at all, ever considered the fact that we would put on a toll.
The first 2 weeks of April 2003, Mr. Bracks declared,was the first time building the highway as a tollway
had merely been considered by Cabinet.

Merely considered it, not planned it, merely raised it as a loose Cabinet discussion subject, as an informal
bit ofconverstaional scuttlebutt tossed around to muse over, and even ponder whether it even sounded a
possibility which E.R.C. should be directed to examine and thus before E.R.C. submitting a fully worked up
proposal . Indeed,, before even just analyses could be undertaken by E.R.C.,, let alone fleshing out of a fully
worked up plan, Cabinet also had to mention it `conversationally’ to E.R.C. when in what, otherwise, is
considered formal meetings of the E.R.C., fully minuted executive minutes.

Well, the `conversational’ tossing things around was documented, in Feb. 2001. It must have been because in
February 2002, Lo! E.R.C. shoved across the table one fully fleshed out proposal,during a formal, executive session of
the E.R.C., which rquires the attendance of responsible ministers: Chairman, Transport, Treasurer, Finance and, lo, the
Premier.

I have to finish this tomorrow morning, I’ve just been called away again. So, stay tuned folks - as you can see, one is taking a little care with this item, it’s just so boggling, it warrants a tad extra effort.