A protest about soaring rents and a lack of housing affordability was organised听outside Parliament House. Renfrey Clarke reports.
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South Australian Labor Party
In a grim omen for the federal Coalition, South Australian voters threw out the four-year-old Liberal government. SA Labor, led by a former right-wing union official, faces some big challenges.听Renfrey Clarke reports.
In public policy, there are many dog鈥檚 breakfasts presented as considered initiatives. Rarely, though, are we served up such a self-contradictory, irrational and generally talentless a dish as the new 鈥渆nergy intervention鈥 announced by South Australia鈥檚 Labor government on March 14.
Aimed at side-stepping conservative attacks over recent power cuts, the government鈥檚 plan makes some provision for storage back-up to underpin wind and solar. But mainly, the $550 million scheme consists of large-scale concessions to fossil fuel interests 鈥 in this case, the gas industry.
The South Australian Labor government鈥檚 public service cuts were passed through parliament on November 8, ignoring sharp criticism from the Public Service Association (PSA) and widespread protests. Australian Council of Trade Unions president Ged Kearney described the cuts as a form of 鈥減olitical terrorism鈥, in an address to the PSA that day. She said public funding issues would become increasingly frequent across Australia as governments continue to adopt 鈥渘eoliberal, global agendas鈥.