PREMIER John Brumby has admitted his government has been "found wanting" on key issues of transport and street violence, just nine months before the state election.
He said the government had had a "pretty ordinary" six or seven weeks, but stopped short of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's admission that his government deserved a whacking and he needed to lift his game.
Mr Brumby said the public had made it clear they wanted more action on the delayed myki ticketing system, the delivery of new trains and bringing street violence under control.
"We've had a pretty ordinary run, that's the truth of the matter," he said. "To the extent that there have been delays, well, of course the responsibility for that rests with the government — rests with me as leader of the government."
At the launch of a police rapid response unit, Mr Brumby said the government had the right plans and was making progress but had been found wanting in the implementation.
"I have been listening closely to the community," he said.
The election-year admission came three years to the day since the myki smartcard was supposed to be operating in the transport system. It is $350 million over budget and operating only on Melbourne's trains. The government is refusing to say when it will be fully working.
The government has also missed its monthly deadline for the delivery of Melbourne's new trains. While the train promised to be running in December is on the rails, the January train is at the Newport railyards and the February train has yet to arrive from Europe.
The Premier's comments follow an opinion poll that found the gap between Labor and the Coalition closing before November's election.
The January-February Newspoll found Labor's two-party preferred vote had fallen to 54 per cent (down 3 percentage points) to the Coalition's 46 per cent (up 3). While Labor would still comfortably win an election based on the poll, it confirms the results of February's AgePoll showing a strong swing away from the government.
Nationals leader Peter Ryan said the admission of blame was a first for the decade-old government: "I suspect Prime Minister Rudd and Premier Brumby have had a mea culpa conference over the weekend."
The opposition has also accused the government of making the media adviser who prepared a leaked government strategy into a scapegoat to cover up the involvement of Planning Minister Justin Madden and the Premier's office.
Adviser Peta Duke was dumped from her media role for writing a document that proposed a strategy to manipulate public opinion to block the controversial $260 million Windsor Hotel redevelopment.
But with an upper house committee due to start investigating the embarrassing leak tomorrow, the opposition said the detail in the document — such as Liberal preselection timing — showed the staffer was not acting alone. Last week, Mr Madden said he had never seen the document and the proposed strategy was not his plan or that of senior staff.
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