Snowy sale 'mischief' kept hidden

Bracks and his crew are asking for your vote next month and this is the way he treats his masters, you the citizen. If a major newspaper is thwarted from getting to the truth and reporting it so you all can make an informed decision about where to put your X on the spot, what trust remains? Check the story from the AGE Newspaper below.

This story is undeniable evidence that our previous statements recommending that Independents be elected if even for only one term, so as to open the BOOKS to the public and media, holds ever so more important at these elections. Our elected representatives are running rampant with the intoxication of autonomous power they wield as each year passes by.

FOI (Freedom of Information) applications are supposed to be a safe guard for the people to keep the bastards honest. What a joke! Even the Greens are seeing the value for running as Independents instead of standing behind the big green machine, for they know that people have had enough. Look deep into the back-ground of each Independent running as you may well find that they are either Green, or Labor covert vote gatherers. Demand to know where preferences are being allocated. If they can't tell you that now, they are being deceitful and have an agenda that may not be in your interest.

Independents need to clearly identify where they are allocating their preferences to, and it should be to like minded Independents that have the State of Victoria at heart, not some party machine. Wake up Victoria. The big three parties (Labor, Liberal & Greens) are festering sucking machines of the first order and the prize is your tax dollars by the billions whilst you are driven to servitude.

There are many with their snout in the trough and although they may well smell the stench, their allegiance to the political cause is bought by inadvertent financial coercion, not undying loyalty, or trust. Quite simply, how many of you can open a bank passbook up and see the balance reflecting $1,000 let alone $10,000 of disposable cash for a rainy day? The answer is the vast majority of you and it is you guys who need and are capable of brining about change. You can easily be successful, for you are the huge majority. A majority that does not in any way have the trough in front of you.

Your vote this November in Victoria, as it will be in March 2007 in NSW, will be perhaps the most important act you as an individual will do for your future and your children's futures. Cast it with understanding and fore-thought.

The Age.

Snowy sale 'mischief' kept hidden

Jason Dowling October 15, 2006

The State Government is refusing to release documents showing it was preparing to sell Snowy Hydro Limited months before NSW and the Federal Government announced plans to sell their share - because it "may create mischief".

A freedom of information request by The Sunday Age seeking documents on the sale or potential sale of the Snowy Hydro up to October last year has been rejected, despite five documents within the Department of Treasury and Finance being identified.

NSW announced plans to sell its 58 per cent share on December 16 and the Federal Government announced it would sell its 13 per cent share on February 7.

A week later, on February 13, Premier Steve Bracks announced Victoria would sell its 29 per cent stake, "following the decision by NSW and the Commonwealth governments to sell their combined 71 per cent stake in Snowy Hydro".

The planned sale was scuttled in June when Prime Minister John Howard succumbed to public outrage against the sale and withdrew the Federal Government from the sell-off.

It now appears Victoria was investigating plans to sell its share months earlier, but the Bracks Government is refusing to release details.

A freedom of information officer with the Department of Treasury and Finance wrote: "The department has located five documents that are relevant to your request. Access is denied in full to all of the five documents."

She said all of the documents were "internal working documents".

"One document involved confidential communication between senior officers to the Treasurer, and there is potential that the document could be used out of context and may create mischief," she wrote.

She said two of the other documents were drafts and the last two were "emails created to capture officer-level discussion and exploration of periphery issues which did not reflect the final position".

Opposition scrutiny of government spokesman Richard Dalla-Riva said the letter reflected the State Government's poor attitude to freedom of information.

"Show me where the word 'mischief' is mentioned in the Freedom of Information Act," he said.

Government spokesman Ben Hart said the freedom of information process was independent and separate from the political process.

"The applicant has the option of appealing the decision but this is a decision made by an independent FoI officer acting at arm's length from the political process and that's the way it should be," he said.

The independent MP for Gippsland East and staunch opponent of the sale of Snowy Hydro, Craig Ingram, said he believed the Government was investigating the sale of the Snowy months before the public was made aware of the plans.

He said the Federal Government had approached him about the potential sale 12 months before it was announced.