Throsby has a theory on elections and coin tosses.
Experts on chance proffer the counter-intuitive fact that each coin toss has a 50-50 chance of being heads or tails, no matter how many times either has fallen in a sequence.
But this doesn’t apply to elections.
South Australian voters felt duty bound to remove a long-term government from power rather than assess the parties on merit. That is, there is no reason why Labor should be rejected because they have been in power for 16 years if they are better for the state.
We know South Australians are an ornery lot and for that we love them. But…
Electing a Liberal government on 17 March 2018 has certainly put the state’s future into flux. How independent will the state Liberals be when similar pressures are applied to them concerning renewable energy that state Labor endured from the federal coalition?
The Liberals’ policy on this has the industry worried. If not rather confused.
Ronald Brakels looked at their policies:
Reading the Liberal Energy Solution document (dead link) was a depressing experience. Maybe I could have overlooked the negative tone of the document that stems from so much Labor bashing. I can understand how 16 years of opposition could result in some bitterness.
But what I cannot forgive is that the document is not internally logically consistent.
- They blame Labor for not having enough back up power but are against the state-owned power plant that provides back up power10.
- They say they support free market11 policies but blame Labor for not interfering in the market to prevent a private company from closing a coal power station.
- The document claims the SA grid is unreliable but also says the state-owned power plant is a waste of money because the grid is so reliable it will only get used an average of once every 10 years.
- They have nothing good to say about Labor, but many policies they say they will follow are similar to what Labor is doing.
Anyway, my lovely crow-eaters, we’ll watch your progress with great interest.