Article: Baillieu defends Vic govt's first 100 days

[ozbob]

From the Sydney Morning Herald click here!

Baillieu defends Vic govt's first 100 days

Baillieu defends Vic govt's first 100 days
Xavier La Canna
March 4, 2011 - 4:59PM

Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu has defended himself from claims he is not moving fast enough to implement promised changes, as he approaches his 100th day in office.

Mr Baillieu was sworn into office last December, promising to move quickly on many of his pre-election pledges.

His coalition is conducting dozens of reviews into projects launched by the previous government, but opposition leader Daniel Andrews on Thursday accused Mr Baillieu of doing nothing to govern the state.

"This is not a government, it's an opposition in exile almost 100 days into government and this government has not passed one bill," Mr Andrews said.

"They have not made or changed one law."

The premier hit back on Friday, saying his government is making progress.

"I am very confident we are moving in a very appropriate manner," Mr Baillieu told reporters when asked whether his government had worked quickly enough to enact changes.

The premier will have been in office for 100 days on March 12.

Among his election promises, he vowed to lift the secrecy around Victoria's controversial Myki public transport ticketing system and the $5.7 billion desalination project.

While he has delayed an announcement on Myki's future, Mr Baillieu revealed this week his government could do nothing to stop the desal plant blowing out to a cost of $24 billion over 30 years, resulting in massively increased water bills.

He also promised a major audit of the public transport system and to increase the number of protective services officers (PSOs) on public transport.

But Police Association secretary Senior Sergeant Greg Davies rated the new government's first 100 days a four out of 10, saying it had failed police with a poor response to wage negotiations.

"Their major achievement to date is getting all of the public service offside by offering wage rises below the inflation rate," Snr Sgt Davies said.

But the premier said he had made progress with policing.

"In terms of the Police Association we are advancing on PSOs, we are advancing on additional recruiting, we are providing additional powers for police in terms of liquor licensing and enforcement of that," Mr Baillieu said.

Public Transport Users Association president Daniel Bowen rated the new government's performance at a C-plus, with room for improvement.

"It is difficult to say they have lifted the veil of secrecy over Myki," Mr Bowen said.

Mr Bowen said he would liked to have seen the full Deloitte report into Myki, which estimated the cost of abandoning the ticketing system at $1 billion.

He did, however, praise the new government for a lot of repair work undertaken on public transport since the coalition came to power last year.

"But there has been no visible progress on buying new trains and building new railway stations," Mr Bowen said, adding transport projects require a long lead time.

[ozbob]

From the Herald Sun click here!

Time to start delivering, critics tell the 100-day-old Ted Baillieu Government

Time to start delivering, critics tell the 100-day-old Ted Baillieu Government

    * Stephen McMahon
    * From: Herald Sun
    * March 05, 2011 12:00AM

A GROWING burden of problems and frustrations is heaping pressure on the Coalition Government to finally go up the gears.

During its first 100 days in government, the Coalition's mantra has been slow and steady, but a looming $2.5 billion financial black hole, difficult pay negotiations with the state's major unions and an expectant public are clamouring for attention.

This is putting pressure on Premier Ted Baillieu to live up to his election promise to fix the problems.

Despite claims this is a Government of "action and no spin", the Coalition has yet to make any real headway into its lengthy to-do list.

The initial hubris of victory, with calls for Labor to "leave quietly and close the door as you go", has given way to a growing paralysis with a deeply cautious Government seemingly more worried about making mistakes than governing.

Government insiders claim there has been lots of work going on in the background.

But voters have seen little concrete action on the big problems of myki, smart meters, getting more police on the beat, improving the train system, putting guards on railway platforms and easing the financial pain of rising living costs for suburban households.

And Mr Baillieu has yet to recover his stride after the January floods, with question marks about police crime statistics haunting the Government's every move this week.

Mr Baillieu's desire to make sure his Government does not repeat the mistakes of his Liberal predecessor, Jeff Kennett, in picking a fight with Victoria's powerful has seen almost 100 issues sent for review since the Coalition came to power on November 27.

This has led to concerns about the Premier's ability to make tough decisions.

Bureaucrats complain of being kept in the dark about policy and ministers being unwilling to make decisions.

Police Association secretary Greg Davies rated the Government's performance on the key law-and-order portfolio as "not good at all" and gave it a fail with four out of 10 for its first 100 days.

"The Government needs to understand talk is cheap, but policing is not," Sen-Sgt Davies said.

"It is only early, but the performance on policing has been nothing to write home about."

The Baillieu Government is also scrambling after its financial plans took a major hit with the decision by Canberra to strip $2.5 billion from Victoria in GST revenue over the next five years. As a result, Treasurer Kim Wells may struggle to maintain the Coalition's key economic promises of maintaining a $100 million budget surplus, not raising taxes and not cutting public service jobs.

VECCI chief Wayne Kayler-Thomson said the May Budget would indicate the Government's true priorities for the next four years.

He highlighted the need for action on public transport as a priority to maintain Melbourne's liveability.

But Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen gave the Government a thumbs-down on its work over the first three months. "Public transport was a core issue at the election. A number of seats clearly swung to the Coalition on the back of poor performance in public transport by the Brumby government," he said.

"But in many cases it's not clear that any progress is being made. The Government would be well advised to start to move more quickly if they are hoping to have runs on the board by the next election."

EVEN the pro-Baillieu faction within the Liberal Party rates the Government's first three months as only a seven out of 10.

"Ted and Peter Ryan have been very good, but there are certainly some things that could be improved," a senior Coalition figure said.

The biggest problems for the Premier were that almost the entire front bench had never been in government and there was a lack of planning put into winning government before the election.

This meant most ministers were without a chief of staff or advisers for months. Staffing problems remain, with lobby groups complaining it can be almost impossible to make contact with government.

Community and Public Sector Union state secretary Karen Batt said the jury was still out on this Government.

"Having made many promises, the test will come with the Budget followed by (pay) bargaining this year," she said.

"Matching his service commitments with adequate staff and funding will be the determinant."

Mr Baillieu seems to be growing into the role.

He can often be seen around Parliament joking with groups of school children and visitors - something that never came naturally to former premier John Brumby, despite almost 25 years in politics.

His biggest worry over the coming months may not be becoming the next Jeff Kennett, but rather ending up like former prime minister Kevin Rudd, who was dumped after failing to deliver on promises.