IN 2007 it was about water.
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In this election the fate of the two key candidates will hinge on health.
Labor’s whopping $270m Goulburn Base Hospital redevelopment pledge will propel candidate Ursula Stephens into the consciousness of swinging and undecided voters.
But whether she’s done enough to land a knock-out blow to incumbent Pru Goward isn’t certain. Such a belated announcement might secure some Goulburn booths but it’s too late for the thousands of voters who have already pre-polled. The late timing also means scrutiny is limited.
And she’s also broken her “no promises” promise made at the candidates night two weeks ago.
But she is a politician.
Regardless of what happens tomorrow, Goulburn will get a new or redeveloped hospital. Not a bad return.
Runs on board
THE late American corporate innovator Hal Geneen once said “In business, words are words; explanations are explanations, promises are promises, but only performance is reality.”
Thus, voters at tomorrow’s State election should weight their score on what the government and incumbent candidates have done these past four years.
No question, the O’Farrell/Baird Government has demonstrated exemplary fiscal management, turning this State’s affairs around from an economic basketcase to a powerhouse.
Figures released by the Bureau of Statistics late last year showed growth in NSW’s State Final Demand – a key indicator of state economic activity – was the strongest in Australia at 3.6 per cent.
Forgetting the poles and wires debate for a moment, opposition leader Luke Foley faces an impossible task to topple Mr Baird on economic credentials alone.
If the Coalition loses power tomorrow, it will be because of poles and wires and the inability of Mr Baird to spell out a Plan B if the lease fails to gain support in the Upper House, which is a distinct possibility.
Indeed, Mr Foley can no longer rely on anti- Abbott sentiment.
And he cannot rely on the obliteration of the LNP Government in Queensland a few months ago.
That wave has well and truly crashed. It gets down to performance and Baird has the runs on the board.
Whether Ms Goward has or not, is difficult to quantify.
But we reckon jobs are a major, reliable indicator.
The latest unemployment data we can source (from http://economy.id.com.au, which uses ABS and Centrelink data, and is endorsed by Goulburn Mulwaree Council) shows the proportion of Goulburn Mulwaree’s labour force looking for work was at 7.87 per cent for the September 2014 quarter, more than double 2011 levels.
The State average was just below six per cent.
Ms Goward’s bread and butter grants here and there have been welcome – the hospital upgrades too - but it’s taken the window of her third election campaign to come up with generation- defining infrastructure commitments.
However, it must be remembered, her first term was under a Labor government.