Senator Jeffrey Gibb Kennett????

[Captain Sensible]

Is considering applying for the casual senate vacancy vacated by Richard Alston.

What does everyone think?

 

[Tim56]

****ing fantastic

 

[BloodyPrincess]

In the words of Peter Costello *laugh* *laugh* *laugh*

He would be too much of a threat to the up and comers in the Libs, no way they will let him.

 

[CharlieG]

He'd want to be much more than a plain old senator if he went federal. If he can't be prime minister, I'm not sure why he'd bother - and he's not going to be prime minister, considering Costello is about ten years younger.

 

[Tim56]

I reckon it's about a 1% chance of happening, but if it did, it would be ****ing fantastic.

 

[carlyp]

Good if it happens but Im not sure that it will happen! I'd vote for him!

 

[Contra Mundum]

Obviously none of you have children who attend schools or have the misfortune to visit hospitals that suffered from the cuts he caused - but hey; since when are schools and hospitals the responsibility of Governments -

we have to get out of the way and let private entreprise do the job - even run prisons (for Christ's sake)

Wake up people!

 

[pazza]

Kennett is responsible for the lowering of Victoria's population and turning south-east Queensland into mini-Melbourne, because his education and health policies were so bloody awful.

Remembering back, as a student in Year 11 when he became premier, the nature of my state run high school changed (hey I went to Laverton High!!!) Can remember the amount of strikes we had in my last 2 years of school..absolutely staggering.

Can also remember what he did to the people of Werribee (I think he had some sort of massive hatred of us down here - probably due to Ken Coghill being Speaker of the Assembly and Coghill throwing out Kennett on many occassions).

First was the new hospital. Now we residents down here, raised all the money to build the new hospital, so, Kennett decides to sell it to the Sisters of Mercy (real smart that - a city the size of Werribee and it's only hospital is made into a private hospital) and thus limiting the amount of people who can use it (the Sisters of Mercy are Catholics) and what it provides (no abortions as far as we know).

Then the toxic dump. Well, whilst not wanting to repeat history, the way the community rallied against it was probably the beginning of the end for the Liberal Party in this state (the Liberal Party's Werribee branch actually closed for 2 years). Personally, it gave me great pride to think that my English teacher from high school, Miss Ryan (Joanne), lead the fight to stop the stupid idea from going ahead.

Frankly, I don't want to ever here from Jeff again...a real loser.

 

[Tinker]

Jeff in Canberra?


THERE IS A GOD!!!!

 

[Wicked Lester]

Originally posted by pazza
Kennett is responsible for the lowering of Victoria's population and turning south-east Queensland into mini-Melbourne, because his education and health policies were so bloody awful.

False - and one of the great myths that's been emerging in the last couple of years.

Victoria's population growth rate was plummeting from the late 80's as the economic rot set in. This was largely driven by a worsening in Victoria's negative net interstate migration position. With Kennett's election in 1992 this situation went from bad to worse for about 18 months before beginning to reverse from about 1994.

Victoria's net interstate migration position looks like this:


1970's to 1990 : continually negative
1991 : -14,853
1992 : -18,427 (Kennett elected)
1993 : -25,388
1994 : -29,195
1995 : -22,020
1996 : -12,800
1997 : -4,687
1998 : +1,206
1999 : +3,975 (final year of the Kennett Government)
2000 : +6,713

The figures remain positive today, though they are decreasing again back to about +3,000 and most demographers believe they will enter a negative position again in the next 3-5 years.

So despite "dreadful" education and health policies, as you put it, the people appear to have been 'on the move' and voted Victoria as a 'place to be' even with those policies. In demographic terms this reversal of a very long term trend represents an incredible turnaround.

Victoria is not a sunbelt state. The only explanation for this turnaround is economic.

Perhaps even more interesting is the oft quoted accusation that regional Victoria was ignored by the Kennett administration. Of course population trends don't tell us much about government services or community needs, but interestingly Victoria's regional cities experienced a very significant turnaround towards higher growth from about 1995 - including the cities of Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo - the principal areas that determined to turf the Kennett Government out of office. The strength of this resurgance in growth was not transparent until the 2001 census results came in - too late for Jeff! Ironic really. Had they known how strongly those regional cities were growing the 1999 election campaign may have been sprinkled with "Jeff saved regional Victoria" slogans.

But regional Victoria as a whole was not growing. Areas to the west of the state were in decline (and for the most part had been for about 50 years). Those same areas remain in decline today. But these seats did not change hands anyway.

Final conclusion: Whether it was Kennett or not, a remarkable reversal in Victoria population forutnes occurred under his government. The position for Melbourne and the bigger regional cities remains healthy today. But this position could deteriorate quickly at the first sign of economic trouble.

 

[BUBBALOUIS]

iS THIS THE SAME kENNETT THAT GOT TURFED OUT AT A vICTORIAN ELECTION , even after turning the economy around?

Why did the Victorian public turn on him? If he is such a great operator as some here are suggesting, why didnt he win a third term?

Ill tell you why, he was not accountable to anyone or anything, he took away the powers of the victorian watchdogs, he gagged his ministers from speaking, he refused to appear on any radio or tv program if he percieved them not to be supporting his agenda, he closed schools,hospitals, sacked teachers and nurses. He ridiculed anyone with a differing viewpoint, he gave government contracts to mates, he totally botched the ambulance service, his public transport ticketing system was a disaster, he sold off the public transport system to incompetents, the toll road he introduced was far too generous for the operators, the tunnell construction went to the cheapest bidder and leaked ...

Oh yeah hed be great

 

[Frodo]

From 300km away he seems to have been the premier that did most for Victoria unless giveaways to minority groups and trade unions are considered important. I think his charisma is low but his ability is high.