Hargreaves exits stage right

Some would say that it was inevitable following a long list of difficult episodes caused to the ALP government, but there was never any certainty given the man is as stoic as they come.

But it has finally come to pass that John Hargreaves is stepping down from the ministry, as reported by the ABC this morning.

There is no news on the ministry replacement as yet. What do people think? Joy Burch or Mary Porter?

Certainly Mary must have sensed the winds of change and has been bumping up her media releases and profile lately…

Meanwhile the Liberals have been pressuring for Hargreaves to serve out his term. Who *was* next on the list? They a bit concerned about that option or something?

And how would John handle the next few years on the “backbench” for all that means in the ACT (apart from a lot lower pay packet)?

The Election Commission report explains (???) the process for filling a vacancy, using a countback only including any of the candidates from the lst election who indicate they wish to contest the vacancy. So if John were to toss it in altogether, for starters, they have to ask who wants in? The preference distribution had Mick Gentleman, Val Jeffery and Steve Pratt as the last three excluded in reverse order.

Mick I think was a left-leaning ALP, who (admirably in my opinion) championed the gross feed-in tariff – that pulls him out of the light-weight stakes I believe. Not sure whether the right-faction head would be prepared to step aside on the basis that Mick might get in though. But that doesn’t seem a given either – could Val or Pratt get a look in? Haven’t had the time or inclination to look that closely…

Anyway, I for one am personally happy to see the person who said “Canberra was designed for cars and always will be a car city” and “there won’t be a bus lane or rail down the middle of Northbourne Avenue while I’m around” out of Cabinet and hopefully then no longer in a position to continue to influence transport design in a town so desperately crying out for vision on the topic.

He had out-of-touch attitudes to his former transport portfolio and inability to realise that a serious public transport solution is the only sustainable way forward for this town, and that just continuing to build more and bigger roads will ultimately fail, and break the budget as it does so.

Ultimately, John is bowing out because the weight of things that he did himself, said himself (or didn’t say), etc that led to criticism outweighing the good work he did. And ultimately his efforts to style himself as an old-fashioned bloke backfired with an electorate that see it more as an inability to move with changed community attitudes.