We are now two years into the Baillieu government’s term of office, and the consensus from the overwhelming majority of Victorians is clearly being voiced: the Baillieu government is a do-nothing government. In Saturday’s Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight painted a picture that reflects what many Victorians are thinking. The cartoon shows the Premier waking up on what he thinks is the day after the 2010 election. Unfortunately for all Victorians, it is two years later — the year 2012 — and the Premier has slept through the snooze alarm. If the reality of what this cartoon suggests were not so damaging and so evident all around this state, one might have a chuckle at the humour depicted.
Whilst the Premier has slept through the snooze alarm, there have been thousands upon thousands of Victorians who have not slept at night because this government’s inaction has cost them their jobs. Victorians continue to lie awake at night wondering if they will ever be able to find employment while the Baillieu government continues in its comatose fashion, failing to create new jobs and slashing hundreds of millions of dollars of funding from the training sector, thus at the same time diminishing the chances of those people to retrain and find other jobs. The investment in infrastructure projects and job creation Victoria experienced under the Labor government simply does not exist under the do-nothing Baillieu government. Strong leadership is simply not a term any Victorian would use to describe the Premier and his government, and the state is paying a very high price for it.
