I am now wondering if this topic heading is prophetic?

Do you think that this election was fought significantly on that issue, Ian? What do you think were the most important factors for you and the people you know?

In other election-related news, I was not surprised to see that Geoff Brock and his family got threatening phone calls in the wake of his decision yesterday.

Geoff Brock would have still have got those phone calls even if he went with the Liberals and forced an election again.

Do you think that this election was fought significantly on that issue, Ian?

I don't think rail was a significant issue, but it know that Labor seemingly lost a minister because of it. Sadly the Turbo Kout was not flicked too, mediocrity rewarded.

Don

Thanks for asking.
The issues can be summed up as good news and bad news.
The Good News is we have cranes on the skyline and Labor promised to keep going what is happening now.
The Bad New is that the State can't afford it and the Liberals looked like being the ones who could fix it.

Either way the offering is uncertainty and voters chose the uncertainty they knew rather than that which they did not. Pleasure before pain.

The voters were not Peed off enough with Labor to chuck Jay who seems a "good bloke"; really this is the only way government changes in SA.

A couple of seat changed hands and rail may have been an issue. It exposed Chloe Fox as not being Chlue. Another southern seat got rid of a bloke who sat on his backside for 4 years; he should never have won the first time so it didn't take a big swing to unseat him.

As for the northern suburbs Labor showed more likelihood of getting EMUs to at least Mawson Lakes so it might have helped them keep a couple of seats.

The TRUTH is that rail is not very important to SA now, certainly not in public thinking. My comments extracted from the Seaford rail justification has been quoted here by me and by others (only 10% of commutes, all modes, finish/start at the CBD). Private transport allows for journey flexibility including dropping kids of at the school. (There was a Range Rover fitted so you could drop kids off at the pool!) Ample evidence to support this because of the traffic congestion when school returns.
Don, look at Melbourne, its CBD is well served by PT but what about those commuting to Williamstown, Dandenong, Altona, Pt Melbourne, Scoresby, no effective PT for these journeys. The same applies to Adelaide.

I am on these pages because I am what Wayne (Hosk) would call a Gunzel, an enthusiastic believer in and supporter of rail. I am also a realist.

Ian

ps. Geoff Brock took the only realistic option open to him and the State. He might be able to win sufficient goodies for his electorate regain any lost popularity and sooth the hurts. Securing the Smelter's future will be a big plus for the region and good for rail.

I note the Federal attack poodle has now claimed that the Labor Government is illegal

I note the Federal attack poodle has now claimed that the Labor Government is illegal

Its very ironic too considering Liberal were the ones who adopted this system in the first place and now they are crying foul because the system worked against them they sound like bitter sore losers who can't accept defeat.

Ian, I think we should add to that list (of Liberal shortcomings) an opposition leader who was the latest in a long list of unimpressive alternatives; he had a 2% swing against him in his own seat. Not good for an aspiring premier.

I hear what you are saying about fiscal responsibility and debt. I think nobody can deny that Rann/Weatherill did an awful lot for Adelaide and most of it seemed to be really useful and needed (perhaps the Southern Expressway duplication being an exception). Everything I've heard about the new Adelaide Oval, for example, is that the city finally has a proper stadium befitting major sporting events; I've been on record before praising the commencement of electrification. State debt is up, there's no doubt about that but I'm inclined to believe that governments have an obligation to continuously improve infrastructure and it's more of a revenue problem than a spending problem.

For example, the Chinese interests who now own ETSA (SAPN or whatever they call themselves now) are currently embroiled in a case with the ATO over the matter of an unpaid $800 million or so in tax. Apparently the ATO have bugger all chance of getting that money back and the money gouged from the South Australian consumer on higher power prices doesn't even get taxed. That's a significant amount in anyone's language and it's not the only case were the ATO have momentously failed in their duty - why isn't Hockey up there in parliament going crook about big multinationals who refuse to pay tax like Google and Apple? Why aren't heads rolling at the ATO for their failure to get that money? No wonder multi-nationals love investing in our country - we don't even make them pay any tax!

Governments need to start looking at things like the tax treatment of speculative investment, family trusts, capital gains tax discounts etc. People who have lots of money (individuals and corporations) can spend money to get savvy tax advice and challenge the ATO in court - they need to somehow put a stop to it so the tax burden is spread more evenly. Given that most sitting MP's have family trusts in operation I'm inclined to believe that we'll never see any action on that one...

I note the Federal attack poodle has now claimed that the Labor Government is illegal

The only thing worse than the "federal attack poodle" are those who only drop negative one liners on these pages.

How about some well thought out coherent discussion? Others may not agree with you but at least give them something to thing about.

Don I can't actually tell you what I know but you are incorrect with your comments on the ATO and SAPN, for a start, chances are the ATO will get the money outstanding from SAPN, it's your side of the stateline that has the massive tax debt and power corporation very aggressive on tax avoidance. The there's this thing about our state being in debt, well here's the thing, the ATO do not collect income tax on corporations for our state...

In terms of what public transport infrastructure projects are going ahead, the real winners will be residents of the North Eastern Suburbs who were promised an O'Bahn Tunnel Extension under the Adelaide Parklands to save several minutes on the journey time from Tea Tree Plaza through to the city.

Also wondering where Jay Weatherill now stands with his plan to extend the Tram Line down the Woodville Train line? Not much appeared to be said about that through the campaign, so I suspect its been scotched?

In terms of what public transport infrastructure projects are going ahead, the real winners will be residents of the North Eastern Suburbs who were promised an O'Bahn Tunnel Extension under the Adelaide Parklands to save several minutes on the journey time from Tea Tree Plaza through to the city.

Not likely. Only those with short memories would have voted Labor on that basis, everyone else would have remembered that Labor had absolutely no credibility on the issue after making promises lies at the 2006 and 2010 elections about various schemes for improving the O-Bahn's entrance to the city.

Also wondering where Jay Weatherill now stands with his plan to extend the Tram Line down the Woodville Train line? Not much appeared to be said about that through the campaign, so I suspect its been scotched?

Coast-to-coast light rail was quietly dropped back in about 2008-09, definitely before the 2010 election.

I wouldn't be in favour of it if I lived in the area anyway, given the choice between rocking and rolling along in a cramped tram with my face stuffed in an armpit or continuing to have comfortable and spacious trains I know which one I'd be choosing. If money is to be spent on light rail, it should be spent on new light rail routes serving areas which currently have no light or heavy rail, not on downgrading an already fit for purpose heavy rail line. If the signalling and TSRs can be sorted out in the approaches to Adelaide station the current crawl into the city should be able to be resolved, but there's more chance of all the grand promises happening than that!

I would be open to the segment between Albert Park and Woodville being converted (and the remainder of the Grange Line become a bikeway) for passengers to connect to a proper train at Woodville, as part of a City-Woodville service running via the Airport, Henley Beach and central West Lakes - basically a hybrid City-WL and WL-Woodville service.

Aaron - the Commonwealth's capacity to collect taxes properly affects us all including state governments; I was just making the comment that governments in general are losing the capacity to tax generally because people who can afford to drag it through the court system. And Commonwealth's failure here is just the thin edge of the wedge.

The Li Ka-shing tax case is well-known and it's widely believed that the ATO will never see their money because of the complex trust/company structures. My understanding was that Li Ka-shing incurred the tax liability after selling out of SAPN some five or six years ago (capital gains) and the ATO have been chasing them ever since; I could have that wrong, it might have been Victorian assets. The detail on that point isn't important, the point is that the failure of the ATO to collect revenues properly isn't being discussed widely in the media or by our elected representatives and it should be.

And these are not piffling amounts of money we're talking about - in relation to that particular case it was $776,000,000.

It shouldn't be up to Leona Helmsley's 'little people' alone to pay tax but increasingly it is.