With less than two weeks until the Victorian state election, the incumbent Labor government is getting out and announcing just about anything and everything they can. Over the weekend, $165m was “announced” for the new southern Geelong hospital.
| Labor Pledges $165m for Hospitals |
“The Government, if re-elected, will plough $85 million into the new stand-alone public hospital, which will have 32 acute in-patient medical beds, 10 chemotherapy chairs, 12 renal dialysis chairs and two theatres.”
Nice, on the surface. Until you dig up the original announcement of this hospital in May:
| Geelong Gets New Public Hospital |
“A second public hospital for Geelong is part of a $170 million cash splash to win over voters before the state election.”
Why do you need to announce it twice, Mr Brumby? You even tried to make it look like a new announcement in a Twitter posting. Do you really think voters are too stupid to notice you double dipping the publicity barrel?
Apparently so.
Furthermore, you also appear to be rushing into announcements to curry extra favour before polling day. How about your announcement of the commencement of works on the new Williams Landing railway station between Laverton and Hoppers Crossing?
“Preliminary works have started on the new railway station and road overpass to service growing residential areas at Williams Landing, as part of the Brumby Labor Government’s major investment in transport infrastructure in the western suburbs.”
Major investment? Seems you’re out of money already. The work crews were present for about a week, graded an area of land about 100 metres by 40 metres, and then disappeared. Completely. This is how the site looked on November 12th, more than a month after works “started”:
I wonder if the “works” on the new Lynbrook, Cardinia Road, and Caroline Springs stations suffered a similar fate? Started them so you can announce that they “started” before the election, and then shut them down?
The same equipment was probably used at each site for the announcement, before being moved along to the next site for the next announcement! Could we be that cynical?
Absolutely.