Anna Nicole Smith has died. I am sure that there will be lots of disparaging blog comments, and I for one am not above a laugh at the antics of American B-list celebrities. However, to die so young is a bit of a tragedy, and when you look back over her life you can see the tragedies she did have: a bizarre marriage to an older man (which can only have been awkward and unpleasant), a long court case with a family that hated her, ongoing fights with her weight, a son who dies at the age twenty. It must have weighed on her. Life isn’t always an easy game to play and while we tend to treat celebrities as kind of cardboard creations, but they go through all the ups and downs and battles that we do, and hers certainly does seem to be a roller-coaster.

Occasionally you come across a story that is so weird that it could not possibly be true. I was recounted this story over lunch and assumed that it was one of those joke stories circulated by email. But, no, it is true. It is still amazing: a convicted murderer escapes from prison with the wardens wife, found living in a caravan on a chicken farm; the wife then returns to the warden; the prisoner escaped because he was celled with a homosexual black man called Peaches…Really, you couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried. Read the whole thing.

Lavatus Prodeo were recently talking about the Beattie Government but what struck me was a point made in the comments – Steve Munn states:

“Here in Victoria it is hard to imagine what Labor would need to do to be thrown out of office. Broken promises (no tolls on Eastern Link), lies (‘we will not consider desalination plants’ before election, ‘they are inevitable’ just weeks after the election) and corruption (George Seitz) have hardly put a dent in Labor’s popularity. I think this says something depressing about the state of democracy in this country.”

This comment just struck me as a large exaggeration. The Bracks Government is a pretty stable, fiscally prudent and cautious Government.

Obviously they broke their promise on the Eastern Link, and should be judged for that, however if the breaking of a promise was considered a reason to get rid of a Government, Victoria would never be governed. In the end the decision to impose tolls was a good policy decision* and the backlash against the Bracks Government was muted by the stumbles of the Liberal Opposition.

Regarding desalination plants, changing the tone of your speeches before and after an election is not a significant issue. Everyone knows that governments get more and more cautious as they approach an election and less so straight afterward. And in this particular case they have not actually made any decision to be critical of. I suspect this water situation has a long way yet to play out, and the political positions will continue to change on this.

I must admit that I don’t recall ever hearing of George Seitz, but having used the Wikipedia mind repair, it appear that G.Seitz was involved in some branch stacking in the Victoria ALP. Now branch staking is not a good thing, but it is the ALP, they do it all the time, and seem to have always done so (at least since the collapse of the mass parties). A bit of branch staking does not make a corrupt Government (not the least because there is a difference between the Party and the Government).

Overall I find it hard to criticise the Victorian Government for what it has done. If anything the criticism is what it hasn’t done. When I try and think of the achievement of the Bracks Government, I find it hard to think of any (beside managing to not get anyone to hate them).

*Automobiles put a lot of pollution into the air, both greenhouse gases and that horrible brown haze that sits all around the city. They also contribute significantly to the visual and noise pollution in the Melbourne. A toll reduces car usage. And of course, all the policy wonks like tolls, mostly because they provide better incentives. And on a purely equity basis, why should the Eastern dwellers get a free road, while CityLink Customers still have to pay.