DON Hubbard’s letter (NDL, February 21) was apparently written while looking in the mirror: “There are none so blind as those who will not see.”
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To pen such a letter without supporting his gossip and innuendo with some facts makes my task difficult, but with limited ability I will try to put some before him and he can get a less myopic person to read it to him.
No reasonable person would suggest that the Rudd/Gillard governments have been without some glaring failures and incompetence but Mr Hubbard and I did not vote to alect a government, we voted for a local representative to put our needs before the government within the federal parliamentary tri-partite system of the executive, the law and floor of the House.
Having seen what Tony Windsor said he would try and do for us in Canberra, I believe around 63 per cent of New England voters gave him the mandate to support his and our constitutional right to support the only government committed to govern for the full parliamentary term.
The solid constitutional and personal reasons for the independents support of the Labor government have all been canvassed and are out there for any reasonable person to read.
Despite some obvious mal-administration and ill-conceived ideas, our economy is viewed by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and international rating agency Moody’s as one of the most resilient and well-run economies on the planet.
With Tony Windsor’s support and quite often initiative, the multi-party committee system has given us:-
* A bi-partisan multi-state plan to resolve the 40-year stalemate regarding the Murray-Darling River system;
* The fly in-fly out inquiry – vital to the survival of many country towns; and
* Stemming from a multi-party committee, the Royal Commission into Institutional Abuse of Children – this Royal Commission will end decades of government neglect.
Tony Windsor chaired all these inquiries.
Because of the agreement with the independents, I believe, the present government will see out its full term.
With Windsor’s support and initiatives we have seen the establishment of many great and lasting measures instigated by the current government – most of which align with Windsor’s pre-election policy platform.
They include:
* The National Broadband Network – an expensive but vital communication network that delivers equity in opportunities and cost parity to country people;
* Promotion of alternate fuel and energy initiatives;
* Introduction of a carbon pricing mechanism – whose parameters are accepted by all parties;
* The National Disability Insurance Scheme;
* $250million for New England Health;
* Business and tax measure such as exemption from GST of road transport fuel and tax breaks for purchasing no til equipment; and
* Gonski education reform initiatives.
If the government is not about health and education, then it is not a government.
I am not surprised Mr Hubbard is morbid, but not because he is blind (blind people I know are anything but morbid). I can only presume he will not see and he listens to fools and a well-orchestrated negative campaign aimed only at bringing down a government, rather than measuring policy, performance and results against promises putting forward reasonable argument and alternatives.