My thanks to Greg Howell for this one.
NSW premier O'Farrell inspected the upgrades to Cardiff Railway station. In comments, State of Shame wasn't impressed:
just heard O'Farrell on the radio claiming that there is no money for the Art Gallery and that the city should work out what it wants first.
OK Baz, how about this. The city knows what it wants - $7m to complete the original development as planned. You could find that from the nearly $1 billion that your government didn't even know it had. You know - remember the auditor general found it? You thought that your government was $300m in deficit, but the auditor general found that your accounting practices were sloppy and your government was actually in far better financial shape with $650m in surplus? Surely you remember that?
Or you could simply trim the $1bn Opera House refurbishment budget by a tiny 0.7% and direct the savings to the Newcastle Art Gallery. Not an option? Think creatively Baz - I am sure that you could find $7m from somewhere in NSW $60bn a year budget. That is a tiny 0.01% of NSW spending.
Oh that's right - not an option because it isn't in the capital is it?
Newy put it this way:
He has a hide showing his head anywhere north of Hornsby. $770m program? On a proportional basis that would mean that about $70m of that money should be spent in the Hunter. What have we got - Cardiff supposedly $14m. That is a $56m shortfall. That is just the tip of the funding shortfall iceber (arts, sports etc).
The Hunter and the north generally need to secede from NSW and form a independent self governing state. Tell O'Farrell and his Sydney centric cronies to rack off until they can divvy up the pie equitably - in other words rack off for good because we know that will never happen.
Ken Scott agreed:
I agree 100% with Newy that we should secede and become our own independent state. How to go about it is a problem as it was in the late 60's when Askin would not let this "milking cow" go on it's own.
Cardiffresident was not impressed with Newy:
Some people would even complain that the lump of gold they inherited was too heavy to lift.
It's interesting how this low level discontent, the support for self government, just keeps bubbling away. I have been following it now for a number of years, and its a constant thread.
2 comments:
Whenever I raise the issue, which I have a tendency to do but especially in busy pubs around Newcastle, the crowd mood is almost always for separation.
Across the city, everyone knows we're being exploited. Not everyone knows how to change it, but the feeling is certainly there.
Go for it, Dermott! Time for another BBQ?
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