Whether a massive government-owned and operated office building in Civic was good policy depends on who you ask.
But a proposal to spend $430million on the thing - easily portrayed as the Government spending hundreds of millions of dollars on itself - was bloody awful politics.
Setting aside the Mickey Mouse sales job for the idea, Zed Seselja and Brendan Smyth didn't have to be political geniuses to spot their opportunity.
So it shouldn't surprise us too much that Katy Gallagher and Andrew Barr didn't even wait for the end of January in this election year to take out this piece of political trash.
A policy that was dogged by political ineptitude from the start was dispatched yesterday with cynical precision.
Bagging out the building proposal was one of Zed's favourite things and now Katy and Andrew have denied him even that simple pleasure.
They've also robbed him of a ready-made answer for every time he's asked how he'll pay for his election promise. ''Well, we won't be building a $430million office block etc ...'' And they did it to him on a Friday. In January. Between Australia Day and the weekend. When the story of the $430 million backflip won't run for more than 12 hours.
You don't have to be a big fan of political spinning to recognise a slick effort when you see one.
Gallagher will now try to get away get away with saying the decision to build a new north side hospital - price tag: up to $360 million - has changed the capital spending equation.
Seselja and Smyth will find it a lot harder to oppose new health services than to trash-talk flash offices for public servants. The property sector, now largely on side, reckons yesterday's announcement was ''pragmatic''. They're not kidding.
.gif)
