August 15, 2006 | Graham

Planning and performing



The Queensland election campaign is on, and it’s not much of a contest.
Peter Beattie has a plan for the future which involves providing enough water by 2011 to meet the needs of south-east Queensland in 2006. At the same time he has a plan for population growth which will see another million people in the area by 2020, but no plan to produce any more water. This at a time when his own government says that greenhouse warming means we will have 70 percent less rainfall in 40 year’s time. Do the maths (which Peter says will be easier for current school age Queenslanders than it was for him because their education is so much better under his government) and this spells big trouble. Imagine how much better our government would be if they’d been educated by this current government rather than running it.
So why should you vote Labor?
Well, Peter says that the opposition is even worse than he is – they can’t even agree on a leader.
He might be right.
Bruce Flegg was interviewed on Brisbane radio this evening and here is an extract:

Cary: Okay, so on the basis of that answer, if the Libs do get more members than the Nats, Lawrence would still be the Premier?
Flegg: On the basis of that answer, you should be aware I’m not going to speculate on not just that outcome but there are a range of other possible outcomes…
Cary: But Bruce, we’re going into an election campaign, you just got to be totally honest with the electorate. It’s not a hard question – would you be Premier or would Lawrence?
Flegg: Greg, we are being honest with the electorate.
Cary: No, you’re not being.
Flegg: And we’ve made it very clear that Lawrence Springborg is the alternative Premier.
Cary: Well, that’s the answer to the question then, isn’t it?
Flegg: Lawrence Springborg is our alternative premier.
Cary: Okay, so if the Libs get more seats than the Nats, Lawrence Springborg is the alternative premier, he’d be the premier?
Flegg Greg, we’re going around in circles here. I’m…
Cary No, we’re not, you’re taking us there.

The electorate is in a mood to punish Peter Beattie. The opposition needs to fan this mood and they will win a huge “boil-over” election result. They won’t succeed if they don’t keep their message focused on the important issues and the government’s lack of performance. Beattie intends to divert them by putting pressure on the fault lines in the coalition.
It looks from the above exchange as though he has found the fault line and he’s about to build Krakatoa out of a mole hill. Whose face will it blow-up in?



Posted by Graham at 11:11 pm | Comments Off on Planning and performing |
Filed under: Australian Politics

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