Pork Barreling 101‏



Yet another glaring example of just how much contempt the Australian Labor Party has for the basic intelligence of the Australian and in this case, New South Wales voter.

On August 1st, in a letter from NSW Transport Minister John Robertson to Parramatta councillor Chiang Lim, Mr Robertson says the“Parramatta-Epping rail link is not a project in the 10-year horizon of the Metropolitan Transport Plan.”

Then just a few days later Premier Kristina Keneally along with her Federal counterpart, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announces that this much promised and much lied about piece of vital infrastructure, will go ahead because of a $2.6 billion dollar pledge by the federal government (borrowed money) to make it happen if the Gillard regime is returned in the coming federal election. See here.

A multibillion dollar bribe and a classic case of pork barreling to win over the affected marginal Labor seats that this rail corridor runs through. Give me a break please! This bloody political football has been kicked around by both sides since the late seventies and all of a sudden if we vote Labor this miracle will finally appear, this time!

Sorry but I don't need to be cynical, just possess a fully functioning brain, to realise that this is another electoral LIE. Clearly the state ALP government was told much earlier that they would get this funding from the feds but had to wait until the last weeks of the election campaign before it would be announced.

If Gillard and the state Alp Government really think that the NSW voters will fall for this rubbish just one more time then I am sure that if either government is re-elected, that the public truly do deserve the government that they get.