A casual glance suggests that this might be the coat of arms of the state of New South Wales. But only the first, most perfunctory glance. The rising sun over the crest is similar, the cross in the centre looks the part until you notice that it's blue rather than the red St George cross of the real thing, the stars on the arms are in the right place but have 5 points instead of 8, the English lion in the centre has been replaced by another star, the golden fleece at the top left is in the right place but there should be another one in the bottom right, and the sheaf of wheat would be where the mining implements and sailing ship (neither of which appear on the state coat) are. Oh, and the lion and kangaroo bearers are missing, as is the scroll that they're standing on with the state motto of Orta Recens Quam Pura Nites. (Newly risen how brightly you shine.)

I don't know exactly what it is (it's nothing like the Sydney coat of arms either), but since the QVB (1898) predates the adoption of the NSW coat of arms (1906) it's possible that this was an early proposal for one. It certainly harks back to the days when prosperity was assumed to come from production, commerce and industry rather than from getting a CEO-ship, doing a rotten job, and getting a payout of a couple of times the company's net profit as a severance package while the average workers that you "rationalise" are lucky to get 4 weeks pay. Or from acting like an idiot on You Tube and getting enough of a following for other idiots in marketing departments to pay you to do it in the belief that anyone even notices those pop-up ads, except to close them. But I digress.

NSW is in for a change next weekend. The state election is on and we have a 16 year old government which stinks to high heaven despite everyone concerned "denying all wrongdoing" every time they get hauled up before the Independent Commission Against Corruption. (Which has nailed distressingly few of them, may I add.)

The Labor government has been saved the last couple of times by the electorate's knowledge that the alternative would be worse. It has now, however, reached the point where it knows that the alternative couldn't possibly be any worse. Labor has violated so many of its key principles and has sold everything in sight to preserve its precious credit rating (and who can really take Moody's seriously after the GFC, please tell me, who???) that no-one knows what, if anything, it stands for any longer except perks of office for its own inner circle. The sale of the NSW Lotteries Office is a classic example; a business that cost almost nothing to run, generated huge cash flow year in and year out, sold off for a song so that the government has room to pork barrel in a desperate attempt to keep its butts on the seats of ministerial limos. Too bad about the schools and hospitals that could have been run out of the cash that will now flow to Tattersals' shareholders and senior management.

Given that there's now no choice but to change government the electorate is waiting behind the polling booth curtains with a metaphorical baseball bat. (An anti-government swing of 25.7% in a recent by-election being a taster.) The problem is that this will give the current policy-free, small-target opposition a landslide that it has not earned, and will probably give it an unfettered sense of power which will be to the detriment of the people of our good state.

If anyone knows where Augustus is buried, I think it's time to dig him up. Or it certainly will be before the next four years are out.

Last Year