Many promises are made prior to an election. Not all of them are kept - but surely the voters have a right to expect some degree of integrity to prevail.
In the run up to the March 24 state election in New South Wales one of the promises made by the Labor government was to widen " The Spit " bridge in northern Sydney.
This bridge creates a bottleneck even at off-peak periods because arterial roads must merge to a lesser number of lanes. The problem is compounded because " The Spit " is also an opening bridge - and at least twice a day all road traffic stops to allow the passage of water craft.
A mere month after the election the state government abandoned plans to widen the bridge, claiming the cost was prohibitive.
Nobody was really surprised. Promises are part of politics - and we all know politicians lie - and the two seats north of the bridge returned Liberal members - to the annoyance of the Labor government.
But - a new factor emerges. The government's promise was for expenditure of $ 50 million to widen that bridge and it now emerges that Roads minister Eric Rozendaal knew in January - months before the election - that the cost blowout would be in excess of $ 130 million.
Rosendaal now claims he was bound by confidentiality because tenders were due to close on April 26 - hence his silence on the cost blowout !
Fair enough - except that during the election campaign the government continued to trumpet the promise of a widened bridge, knowing full well that it would have to be abandoned on cost grounds.
And that is what is called a deliberate lie !
Nobody expects truth to be paramount in politics - but if a businessman lied to that extent when promoting his company he would end up behind bars.
Isn't running a government a form of business ?
No comments:
Post a Comment