I've been talking to some Queensland ferrets about the State election. Current call by one ALP outsider is a 4 seat majority to Labor. Feeling is that the South East, especially Brisbane won't bring themselves to elect Springborg Premier. But will they remember that he's really National Party despite the re-branding?
Haven't seen a breakdown of the latest poll giving the LNP a 2% break but suspect the lead could be weighted towards the bush and regions. The old Beasley 1998 majority in the wrong seats syndrome.
After the WA debacle anything is possible. It seems that solid but boring government isn't enough. The electorate are looking for blood. Factional pre-selection skulduggery and a lack of an articulated vision by Premier Anna Bligh apparently aren't helping. Not to mention the elephant in the room - the economic crisis.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Queensland election: thinking the unthinkable
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11 comments:
If U you can find one good reason to vote Labor in Qld I'd love to hear it. Not voting for the Tories seem sto be it.
You may also like to mention that Labor's membership has collapsed to a little over 6,000. Corruption has dogged the party. They're arrogant. Careless. Self serving. Commi9tted to fossil fuels. And after 13 or so years they are hated. But are the LNP hated more?
It's optional preferential so the disillusioned or never-illusioned may well decide the election by omisssion.
If as the saying goes politics is local then a reason to vote Labor in a nut shell Peter Dowling in Redlands.
Remember he was a senior player in the Secombe Six a council team that wantonly ignored the residents scoring 31% approval rating for almost the entire council period. Their manipulation of the council system, victimization of dissenters and preferential dealings were as legendary as is his foot in mouth displays, violent verbal temper tantrums and attitude to women. He survived the purge of the council by less than the incumbent factor on absentees.
LNP sources tell me his nomination has split this branch.
In his time on council his record is abysmal for his division achieve 1 of his 20 promises he made and that was more to do with circumstances than his input.
buzz
Fly on the Wall
Flies buzzing around the ferrets!
The word out there is that a lot of traditional labor voters will vote for others to give Bligh a wake up call.
This could prove to be her undoing and the Greens will get the disillusioned vote and their preferences will get labor possibly over the line.
I will not be voting labor for personal reasons but whoever comes out the victor will be handed a chalice that no politician will envy.
Too close to call in my opinion.
I would like to ask Queenslanders to have another look at closing down Cubbie Station and letting the water flow all the way to my home state of SA. Too hard for Beattie, off the radar for Bligh and now that LDP Springbok person wants to secede from the National Murray Darling agreement.
Robyn, I have been at loggerheads with Wong's office for months to no avail concerning a solution to the MDS that would see improvement to the rivers health, reinvigorating the rural industry, inland settlement and guaranteed prosperity for generations to come.
It has been designed and costed but the government refuse to exercise the powers they have to confiscate the water assets, create one authority that over-rides the states.
It is not in the federal government's interest as they have embarked down the wrong road and are loathe to do a backflip as they consider this to be a sign of weakness.
As soon as the river system was politicised by the former PM it was doomed!
The actions to date by both sides of politics in QLD indicates that the status won't change as the survival of the system depends on QLD as the water needs to be piped from the Burdekin to the head of the Warrego which is just under five hundred kilometres.
If the states were different countries I believe that a war would have started over this issue.
So much for federation!
Not sure about much other than if I were able to vote I wouldn't vote for the current Government as they seem to have passed a law which allows Lessors to charge tenants for water usage. I was conned into prejudicing myself by even paying and arranging for the compliancy effort (not being told that it was for compliancy leading to me paying for resource). Was only refunded after expense on my part as well.... NOT HAPPY!
While I'm at it I may as well state my concerns about the crazy Housing market in this State and in others.
Australia must have the most "vacant" land of any country in the World and yet the price of residential land seems to be the most expensive in the World! The rest of the World has pulled back from the "bubble" in property prices but we seem to be trying all sorts of marketing ploys to hang on to those unsustainable prices. (Wonder what will evetually happen to those 1st home buyers who think they are getting a bargain with the 21,000.00 grant?) State Governments open up the land supplies, a home building site should be running at around $70,000 NOT 4X that price!
Also, get the Infrastructure up to date, updates that should have occured in the 1960's haven't reached us yet - once again the States are being marketed for growth and yet life is becoming hell like because roads can't cope, water is running out .......
The only people who seem to be getting along are those working in Government and politicians (few lucky individuals as well)who seem to be able to dictate their conditions.
Anonymous 15th,
You need look no further than developers for available land. They already have heaps BUT they’re sitting on the land because it isn't profitable ENOUGH to cover their boom time strategy.
They bought land at high prices and highly leveraged to lock out others and make HUGE profits. Money was plentiful and “cheap” for those who thought big.
A few extra % didn’t matter it could be buried by passing it on to the buyers anyway. The actual construction prices per unit would cover the extra interest …scale of purchases on housing material etc. It was a numbers game. Think of it like this 10% net profit on a million is $100K but the same percentage of $100 million is $10 million. Put some of that towards the next bigger project and viola ! More profit again. The catch was there had to be lots of borrowing money about and prices need to be high both drops and “oh shit!” Many of these Companies are now trying to ride it out or are asking Govt to guarantee their flow of credit.
Now who’s at fault? In my mind the development ‘get rich QUICK pirates and the various industries/ideological reasoning that forced the Govt not to regulate more.
One thing is for SURE IT’S NOT THE CURRENT FED OR STATE GOVT FAULT it’s simply the get rich Quick mentality (Greed) of huge lenders and borrowers who caused the credit crash.
However, the state can and is spending heaps on public housing/ infrastructure keeping the tradeys and industry afloat. The state and fed are stimulating as best they can first home buyers to refloat the market.
In short if every developer were/could to develop all the land currently held we’d have a building boom like this country hasn’t seen since 1946.
I have no gripe against developers per se but I do think we need to rid our selves of the Get Rich Pirates that currently plague our baysides.
If everyone is a disillusioned about both parties why not give the Independents a go. Everyone keeps complaining about the party politics and the lack of each party to give a damn about what the voters want - well why not vote for an Independent first and then a party. At least Independents are not bound by party politics and most are running because they're tired of government inaction as well, just like the rest of us, only dfference is they're giving it a go so why don't we get behind them instead.
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