[Written in Kiama, 20 June. Ancient history by blog standards.]
2005 was seen in some quarters as the year that Labor's grip on state governments would loosen. Western Australia was seen as vulnerable, and the Northern Territory an aberration that would swing back to the CLP status quo.
Well, the WA result is history, and in two NT elections, the CLP is now a rump. Reports in today's SMH had the CLP down to six (possibly four) seats. In a landslide, some seats swung by 20%!
Both losing contenders floated idiotic public infrastructure projects during the election campaigns. In WA, it was the water canal from the Kimberley to Perth to solve water shortages. The NT CLP wanted a $1.3 billion power transmission line from Queensland to Darwin to meet future demand. Both projects would have been expensive white elephants, heavy on energy and delivering diminishing returns.
In the NT example, line losses over the proposed distance would have delivered a fraction of the energy input. Average length transmission lines can lose up to 50% of the energy input. Imagine the losses over 3000km! The electricity would have been generated using coal, when Darwin sits on the edge of large, less environmentally damaging natural gas reserves. It was lunacy, and it's heartening to see that the electorate saw through it.
