Cause of Howard government war on States revealed!
The Howard government knows its in trouble. The polls aren't looking good. Despite the millions of taxpayer dollars the government is spending advertising its unfair WorkChoices laws, the electorate isn't convinced. The interest rates have risen 4 times since the last election in 2004, when the government ran a scare campaign against Labor and promised that interest rates will stay low under the Libs, and it looks like they will rise again, housing affordability is at the lowest level since records began and prices on food and essential items are are rapidly increasing.
To top if all off, leaked government-commissioned research by Mark Textor revealed that Howard is seen as "old and dishonest". If the results of the research are accurate, the only surprise is that it took the voters 11 years to cotton on to Howard's dishonesty. But that is not the theme of this post.
The same research report advised the government to "emphasise the commonwealth is bailing out ineffective and inefficient states"
Given that all States and Territories are presently governed by Labor, that explains a lot. If you can't shake Rudd and can't win on merits because the electorate realised that your merits are much more limited than you've been putting on, attacking Labor-governed States is a great way to go. At least now we know the true explanation for some of Howard government's recent conduct - it was following advice on an electoral strategy!
In recent months the Howard government has been aggressively interfering in State affairs. It sent troops into Northern Territory (not quite a State, but close) to deal with sexual abuse problems in indigenous communities - problems that the Howard government ignored for the last decade. It threatened to do the same in WA. It is planning to take control of the Murray-Darling basin with its water management plans. The Howard government's explanation for its actions adopted the Textor report recommendation to "emphasise the commonwealth is bailing out ineffective and inefficient states" to the letter. In an announcement posted on YouTube (trying to counter the "too old" image, no doubt), Howard stated "my Government only intervenes in those areas where state or territory governments have not fulfilled their obligations and local communities feel let down." One could ask why the government did nothing about these issues for 11 years, but the Textor report doesn't require that attacks on States have actual merit.
More recently, the government interfered in Tasmanian government health reform plan, promising funding for Mersey hospital services which were to be transferred to another hospital (and leading to a senior doctor at the hospital resigning in protest). And of course, consistently with the Textor recommendations, Abbott warned States that the "Commonwealth cannot rule out future interventions if state governments fail their constituents." There does not appear to have been any analysis about the pros and cons of the Tasmanian government health reform plan or about whether the intervention is likely to cause more harm than good, Howard government just followed the formula - "emphasise the commonwealth is bailing out ineffective and inefficient states" - and made sure its action was advertised all over Tasmanian newspapers. At least throwing Tasmania's health reform plans into disarray is not as morally objectionable as sending troops into indigenous with the primary aim of electoral advantage rather than achieving a positive outcome for the people concerned.
The latest Howard government tactic is to blame the States for anticipated interest rate increases and, consistently with the government strategy "when in trouble, spend lots of taxpayer money advertising", new TV advertisements are about to be aired blaming the Labor State governments for rising interest rates. The fact that the same governments ruled the States when in 2004, Howard took credit for low interest rates and strong economy does not seem to have struck the government as a bit of a contradiction. Either in 2004 Howard alone could not claim the entire credit for strong economy and low interest rates, and so he was lying then, or the current rising interest rates are not the fault of the states, and he is lying now. Either way, the perception of dishonesty appears to have sound basis.
Hopefully, the voters can remember the government's hypocrisy as they are bombarded with more misleading advertising, paid for by their hard-earned dollars.
Update: please see the excellent comment by Marek Bage in comments to this post regarding the Mersey hospital.
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