We’ll know how badly Peter Beattie is doing over the health issue shortly because we are conducting an online poll into his handling of it. That said, the signs are not good for him.
This morning’s Courier Mail carries the headline “Beattie fights revolt”. It then goes on to how he is giving himself “greater personal involvement in fixing the problems facing public hospitals,” which appears to mean freeing up some of his time by bestowing the Treasury portfolio on deputy Anna Bligh.
All this is more than a little bizarre. Beattie is a former health minister who according to many, never managed to leave the portfolio, consistently micro-managing succeeding ministers. He’s one of the people culpable for the whole fiasco.
Anna Bligh managed to keep the whole issue boiling away over the January holidays by some very inept handling of the Caboolture Emergency Department issue. Her bumbling statments where the department seemed to open and close a number of times, and then eventually was open, but only between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., so please have your accidents during business hours, brought back memories of her “in denial” performances on the issue of asbestos in Queensland schools. Normally you would think she’d be lucky to hold her portfolios, let alone be promoted to Treasurer.
While The Australian has been reporting some apparently leaked research saying that, while electors blamed the Beattie government for the public health problems, they weren’t moving to the Coalition, because they wouldn’t do any better, how long before they decide they couldn’t really care and a change is as good as a cure?
The only plus for Beattie at the moment is the Coalition itself. The Nationals want to undo the coalition agreement, largely because the “sham” joint preselections are turning out not to be so sham, and they’ve lost out in at least one they thought they had sewn up. Liberal Party President has tried his best to do a new deal, but apparently keeps getting rolled by his boys – Santoro and Caltabiano. And then there’s the defection of Julian McGauran and the Prime Minister’s generally inept handling of Queensland Liberal Party internal politics (another blog piece there). Oh, and Michael Caltabiano is busily trying to raise support for himself as Liberal Party leader, as well as encouraging Bruce Flegg to challenge Bob Quinn (yet another blog piece coming).