You can usually tell how bad a government policy is by the intensity of the spin that precedes it. And this press conference was so intense, the only thing missing was Tom Cruise. In the space of a few minutes, Newman described his idea as “historic”, “momentous”, “fantastic”, “exciting”, “methodical”, “disciplined” and “in-depth”, self-praise apparently being very much a recommendation in Queensland these days. Newman even dubbed the whole package ‘Smarter Stronger Choices’, theorizing that it’s always best to get the difficult bits out of the way in the title. The stupidity of the LNP spin on this deal is almost as easy to work out as the math, which I’ll come to in a minute, because the spin is worth dwelling on. If you lease an asset to someone for 99-years, then, effectively, you sell it. At least that’s what the average Canberra homeowner understands, because that’s how they own their land – on 99-year leases. The Libs tried this on back in 2006, when Mal Brough (a Queenslander almost but not quite as likeable as Newman) tried to convince Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory that 99-year leases over their land did not amount to a sale. This in a jurisdiction where the average life expectancy for a black male in many communities hovers around the mid-40s. In any case, here’s an inconvenient truth: possession is indeed nine-tenths of the law, and if you lease something to someone for 99 years, then they own it. Unless you plan to live a very, very long time. Or you’ve already purchased a spot in a cryogenic freezer. And so that’s the spin out of the way. Now to the math. Campbell Newman, currently aged 51, will be 150-years-old when the assets he’s planning to lease revert back to public ownership. Even uber-privileged white men from Queensland are not expected to live that long. So Newman appears to be banking on the fact that he’ll either be long dead before Queenslanders realize they’ve been fleeced, or he’ll be so old and senile that people will take pity on him. In his defence, that did actually work for Joh. On matters of math, maybe it’s best to defer to the Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls, who explained: If you lease your house out for a year, you get it back at the end of the day.” Well, actually, no. You get it back at the end of the year. But either way, Nicholls – clearly a numbers man of some repute – was obviously hoping Queenslanders don’t notice there’s quite a gap between ‘1’ and ‘99’. Read more: https://newmatilda/2014/10/08/if-queensland-isn%E2%80%99t-chock-full-stupid-people-how-do-you-explain-campbell-newman
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 04:33:58 +0000
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