DESPERATE times call for desperate measures, the saying goes, and a looming state election must qualify.
At least, it does when you’re lagging in the polls.
Which must be why the Coalition is busy recycling media releases: Last week it “released” details of grants for war memorials, even though they had been available for some time.
This week it sent out a media release damning Labor’s Bay West port proposal with wording lifted straight from a media release sent out two weeks ago, apparently in an attempt to gain extra cut-through.
Or maybe it’s just because we’ve heard it all before and no one’s listening anymore.
MEANWHILE, Labor has still to show its hand on two of the region’s biggest infrastructure projects: the upgrade of the Great Ocean Road and the duplication of the Princes Hwy between Colac and Winchelsea.
The Liberals challenged state Labor last week to say whether it backed the projects, worth a combined $412 million in funding commitments.
An opposition spokesperson promised a response last week but never returned the Indy’s call.
A week later and still no reply.
We’ll take that as a ‘no’, then.
CRITICS are trying hard to stick an inflated price tag on Geelong’s huge floating Christmas tree.
City Hall will pay only about $320,000 for the 25-metre tourist attraction but the knotted-knickers brigade insists it actually costs $1 million.
That’s the figure over five years, they argue, once storage, installation, removal and maintenance are added to the bill.
Going by that logic, a $36,000 Ford Falcon should be advertised as actually costing about $60,000 to include five years of maintenance, rego, servicing, insurance et cetera.
But that would be unfair.
SPEAKING of the big tree, it certainly extended an outbreak of untraditional public debate in Geelong.
With the usual suspects of employment, infrastructure priorities and the outlook for the Cats sidelined, the city romped through a fortnight of widespread raging argument over zombies on Malop St and oversized floating Christmas icons on Corio Bay.
Hopefully we don’t resume usual transmission, as they say on TV, too soon.
