Suddenly Kristina Keneally’s performance doesn’t look so bad. What happened to Labor in Queensland on Saturday is without any precedent in Australian history – certainly not since the Second World War, prior to which the party system tended to be more fluid. Labor can be assured of only six seats, holds the lead in only seven, and on the best case scenario will win only eight, for a total of 9% of the Legislative Assembly’s 89 seats. That compares with the “cricket team” of 11 members that Queensland Labor famously managed to return in 1974, at what was previously the gold standard for Australian election massacres – and at that time the parliament only had 82 seats. As for Keneally, she managed to win 20 seats in a chamber of 93, albeit that she did so with 24.0% of the primary vote against a provisional 26.6% for Anna Bligh.
I don’t normally presume to tell the voting public its business, but this is an unhappy state of affairs. While it might be argued that a useful example has been set for future governments considering breaking election commitments, the result is an unmitigated disaster so far as the effective functioning of parliament is concerned. Lacking anything that could meaningfully be described as an opposition, its sessions will henceforth resemble those of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The problem is exacerbated by Queensland’s lack of an upper house, both as a venue for holding the government to account and for providing Labor with a second-eleven to fill out a shadow ministry. The precise dimensions of the problem can be detailed with reference to an online cheat sheet for British high school politics students, which tells us that parliament has five functions: legislature, representation, recruitment, scrutiny and legitimacy. I shall consider the first three in turn, while also shedding light on the last two along the way.
It might be argued that the Queensland parliament’s legislative functioning will be little worse than usual: so long as a disciplined party has a majority of whatever size, a unicameral parliament exists largely to do the bidding of the executive. However, the result will hamper the vitality of the committee system, which offers the public and interested parties a point of access to the legislative process, and helps iron out problems in legislation to the extent that doing so doesn’t tread on the toes of cabinet and the forces to which it responds. Each of the parliament’s 10 current committees have three non-government members from a total of six (seven in the case of the Committee of the Legislative Assembly), requiring 30 non-government members to maintain the existing state of affairs. Since the election appears to have only turned up 11 non-government members, it is clear that these committees will be dominated by the government, tending to make them both less vigorous and less representative.
This brings me to the second function of parliament, which is the one that presumes to make the system democratic: representation. While nothing should be taken away from the immense achievement of the LNP on Saturday, it has still not on present numbers cracked 50% of the statewide vote (although late counting may tip it over the line). However, such is the system in Queensland that it has emerged with very few fetters upon its power. This is not a situation Queenslanders tend to lament. The public is very easily persuaded that good government can be equated to “strong” and “decisive” leadership, rather than apparent abstractions like accountability and consensus. Media players are eager to fortify this view, knowing that systems which concentrate power are most responsive the pressures brought to bear by powerful interests. It tends not to register that such issues lay at the root of the abuses of the Bjelke-Petersen era – for which, incidentally, Queensland voters were far more forgiving than they were for Labor’s failings on Saturday. Opponents of reform may argue that such abuses are best addressed by extra-parliamentary accountability mechanisms such as corruption commissions, ombudsmen and auditors-general, but none of these is a substitute for parliament’s role as the expression of the sovereignty of the people. For as long as it plays this role, democratic principles demand that it be chosen by a system which produces representative outcomes.
There is plainly no clamour for these issues to be resolved by restoring the upper house, which Queensland abolished in 1922. The obvious alternative is to replace the single-member constituency system, which is increasingly a peculiarity of the English-speaking world, with proportional representation. Such a system in its purest form would have given Labor 24 seats, a suitably humiliating total that would nonetheless have left it enough personnel to credibly perform the job of opposition. An Australian public schooled in the notion that power should be wielded singularly and authoritatively would no doubt complain about minority government and the empowerment of marginal groupings, which we are told has had such a disastrous impact in Canberra over the past 18 months. However, there are ways in which such impacts could be limited. One that is very familiar from Australian practice involves dividing the state into regions represented by, to pick a fairly conservative total, five members each. On the basis of Saturday’s results, this would have had the LNP winning three or even four seats in each of the state’s regions, giving it a substantial working majority without entirely demolishing Labor.
There is another possibility which, although foreign to Australian practice, would put to rest any complaint about minority or coalition government. This would be to introduce a directly elected executive along American lines, balanced by a proportionally represented legislature. Such a system would do away with the anachronistic notion that those wishing to hold executive office should have to pay their dues through a lengthy parliamentary career. The limitations of this model were illustrated by the need the LNP felt to pursue its perilous Newman-for-Ashgrove strategy, with potentially disastrous consequences if it didn’t come off. How much more rational it would have been for Anna Bligh and Campbell Newman to have faced off in a direct contest for the premiership with all of Queensland given the chance to vote, together with a second vote to determine the composition of a legislature giving voice to a broad range of interests.
Finally, there is the question of parliament’s role in recruiting political talent. Partisan critics may scoff, but Queensland has been done no favours by the wipeout inflicted upon Labor’s ministry, which has between three and five members left standing out of 15 who were re-contesting their seats. The 43 incoming LNP members will no doubt include many conscientious local representatives and a smattering of stars of the future, but there will just as surely be a number of ill-prepared and under-talented accidents waiting to happen, who will in no way constitute a happy trade-off for Andrew Fraser, Cameron Dick and Stirling Hinchliffe. Even before the election, the LNP showed that its vetting procedures were rather less than fail-safe, with three candidates in seats it looked certain to win forced to withdraw at various points. As noted, the government will not even be able to keep all such members out of mischief by providing them with committee work. More broadly, the election’s demonstration of the remarkable volatility of modern voting behaviour will act as a disincentive for talented people wishing to enter state politics, given the perilous lack of job security involved.
Now then, to what happened on Saturday and why. The following list is by no means exhaustive:
Negativity. Many decades from now, election campaigners will still speak in hushed tones of the day the Crime and Misconduct Commission’s announced it would not proceed with an investigation into Campbell Newman, forcing Anna Bligh to concede: “Right now all I have is questions, I don’t have enough answers from Mr Newman or enough material”. It was then that the Labor’s position deteriorated from disastrous to catastrophic. It is rapidly becoming the fashion to view this election as a morality tale about the dangers of negative campaigning, but this needs to be kept in perspective. When I assembled links to both parties’ television advertising on an earlier post, I found that the LNP campaign consisted of five positive ads and five attacks ads, which is presumably no coincidence: it is exactly how you would expect a balanced and effective campaign to look. The issue for Labor was the entirely personal nature of its attacks, to the extent that it took the appalling risk of involving Newman’s wife. As Dennis Atkins of the Courier-Mail reported on the eve of the election, Labor’s assault did have the LNP spooked in the middle of the campaign, albeit that it clearly need not have done if Newman hadn’t set himself the bar of Ashgrove to clear rather than just the foregone conclusion of a parliamentary majority. So clearly attacks on personal probity can achieve their desired end, but only if they squarely hit their mark. If they don’t, watch out. And if such attacks are all your campaign has had to offer, don’t expect voters to be receptive if you spend the final week pleading for sympathy.
Ashgrove. Labor’s other giant gamble was its total focus on thwarting Campbell Newman in his bid for Ashgrove, on the basis that uncertainty over that result was its only weapon to encourage waverers across the state back into the Labor fold. So it was that Labor wasted little of its campaign breath on the more traditional type of negative advertising which might have done the job – cuts to services under a conservative government being the ever-reliable standby for Labor at state level. A more artful strategy might have integrated such attacks with its anti-Newman theme, portraying the well-connected wheeler and dealer as out of touch with your proverbial working families. The irony for Labor was that the very collapse of its get-Newman strategy was what drove the polling into a tailspin in the final week, which appeared to convince many Ashgrove voters that it would be highly indulgent of them to decapitate an LNP that was unquestionably going to win the election.
It’s time. I’m going to be provocative here and leave Labor’s broken promises and policy failures off the list. My rationale is that the Peter Beattie went into the 2006 election encumbered by the “Dr Death” fiasco, and emerged with almost all of his huge majority intact. The fact is that every government has baggage which accumulates throughout its time in office, and a tipping point inevitably arrives where it can no longer carry it all. As this election shows, the consequences can be disastrous if the government scrapes over the line for one last term in office, which it very often achieves on the back of promises it proves unable to keep. This leaves the government with the problems noted previously: unable to convincingly run on its record, desperate scare campaigns and personal attacks are all it has left. By very stark contrast, it is simplicity itself for the opposition to offer the balance of positive and negative which, as noted previously, is the cornerstone of a successful campaign.
Anna Bligh. Going into the campaign, Anna Bligh’s poll ratings were not impressive in absolute terms, but relative to Labor’s disastrous figures on voting intention they were remarkably strong – stonger certainly than Julia Gillard’s, who for all her much-touted difficulties leads a government with a two-party preferred rating in the upper half of the 40s. Clearly the shine from Bligh’s response to the floods had not entirely worn off. This made her a net asset to the party which, used effectively, would have been a key factor in any less-bad-than-New-South-Wales defeat. However, Labor demolished all that by not only pursuing its personal attacks on Campbell Newman, but placing Bligh at the centre of them. For Bligh herself to use parliamentary privilege to suggest Newman might be imprisoned jettisoned the fairly elementary axiom of political strategy that leaders should be seen to be above this sort of muckraking, which should instead be left to a designated ministerial attack dog. Labor’s contrary rationale seemed to be that Bligh was the only thing the government had going for it, and that she thus had to bear the whole burden of its public communications. The entirely predictable effect of this was that Bligh’s personal ratings tanked as the campaign progressed, taking with it one of Labor’s few remaining assets.
Federal factors. “This was a state election fought entirely on state issues”, went John Howard’s Sunday morning mantra throughout the 2000s, as his state counterparts mopped up the blood after yet another electoral drubbing the night before. Yesterday came the turn of Labor interviewees on Insiders and Meet the Press to trot out this very same line. Howard of course was routinely mocked for this, but he usually came up looking pretty good when his own time to face the voters came around. Are things any different this time? I tend to think that they are. “Voters are intelligent enough to distinguish between federal and state issues”, politicians are wont to say, by way of finessing state election defeats and flattering their target market besides. However, one politician who memorably demurred was an earlier Queensland Premier, Wayne Goss, who after losing office in the twilight of the Keating years remarked that voters had been “sitting on their verandas with baseball bats”, waiting to take a swing at the first Labor government that came along – which, through not fault of his own, happened to be his own. That there was an element of this on Saturday cannot be seriously disputed: the only question is how much. Certainly federal Labor is doing quite a bit worse in Queensland polling than John Howard was at the time the Coalition was crushed at the 2001 Queensland election. In the corresponding Newspoll result, Howard’s Coalition trailed in Queensland 54-46, while John Howard’s personal ratings were 37% approval and 53% disapproval. This hardly seems a ringing endorsement, until you compare it with the most recent figures for Labor in the state: a two-party deficit of 59-41, with Julia Gillard on 25% approval and 65% disapproval.
Electoral geography. Compared with NSW, Labor looks to have performed about 2.5% better on the primary vote and 2.0% better on two-party preferred (I believe they are shooting at a bit below 38% on the latter count), but on seats their performance is much worse. This is because Labor’s support in Queensland is spread more thinly throughout Brisbane than in Sydney and Wollongong, where Labor enjoys concentrations of support that translate into a greater number of unloseable seats.
The media. Well, no, actually. From where I’m sitting in Western Australia, this looked nothing like the 2008 WA election campaign, when barely a day went by without The West Australian deploying its front page in pursuit of a vendetta against the Labor government, entirely irrespective of whether or not the day’s events had furnished it with any material with which to do so. Far from being annihilated, that government actually came within a handful of votes of clinging to office. Murdoch tabloid though it may be, the Courier-Mail contented itself with reporting what was actually happening. No doubt it was a different story on talk radio, but that is a medium which preaches to the converted: it is monopoly daily newspapers which truly have the power to shape the campaign agenda, and the Courier-Mail exercised that power even-handedly and responsibly.
Women’s issues. Women leaders contesting state elections are now batting one from seven (although the picture is somewhat rosier at territory level). It’s true that this is partly down to Labor’s apparent habit of turning to women when their governments are running out of puff and headed for defeat in any case, but there might also be a peculiarity of Australian culture at work here. On a possibly related note, female representation has taken a knock with the LNP’s triumph, as only 16 of their 89 candidates were women.
Labor’s issues. Landslides copped by Labor tend to be a) bigger than those inflicted on the conservatives, and b) suffered from government rather than opposition. But that is a subject for a future post.
GeeWizz
[I’m too young to remember, but from what I read stuff got built under Joh]
Damn right stuff got built under Joh. Stuff like Qld = Australia’s Deep North,Qld = The Moonlight State, Queensland = A national joke are but three things .
[NATIONALS leader Warren Truss has backed long-serving Nationals MP Bruce Scott in his seat of Maranoa in the face of a challenge by the party’s Senate leader Barnaby Joyce.
Warning of a “media circus” surrounding Senator Joyce’s lower house challenge, Mr Truss said Mr Scott would have his support if he nominated for the Queensland seat again.
Mr Truss told The Australian Online that Mr Scott, who is 69 later this year, still had a lot of support in Maranoa.
“I don’t normally endorse candidates, but I owe loyalty which I willingly give to my sitting colleagues,” he said.]
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/warren-truss-backs-veteran-mp-bruce-scott-whose-seat-is-being-targeted-by-barnaby-joyce/story-fn59niix-1226310390485
BB,
You can change the date created of a Word document. Here is one way:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080306125519AAaWvxG
If a file is attached to an e-mail it retains the date created of the original.
I’d be wary of the authenticity of the document you received.
Just heard about “Repealer in Chief” on Sky. I guess with the Coalition it is the new name for the “Witchfinder General ” ?
I would think that the LNP may well not repeal to much in the way of gun law because it is a relatively urban conservative government for QLD and they also would not be wanting to be open to attack on law and order grounds.
“This idiot”
If you pay a toll on the Ipswich Motorway, then you’ll be the only idiot that does.
William, much appreciated. Don’t have a lot of time these days to keep up.
Will try and catch up with the bludgers comments as well.
On the subject of armed police.
Not content with that, Baillieu has started his Orwellian “Public Safety Officers” complete with firearms on suburban stations at night.
Counting down to the first fatality.
Have not seen any tolls on the Ipswich High way ? What about all the other roads and Hospitals , Uni’s , schools etc etc etc etc etc Yes you are a idiot fizzer.
poroti
I believe “Witchsmeller Pursuivant” is the correct term.
Stuff got built under Stalin as well. It didn’t make him any more pleasant though.
Interesting to Sinodinos on SKY – kept referring to PPL as “Tony’s’ or ‘his’ never as ‘ours’; and also made it clear that a lot of what he (Sinodinos) was talking about isn’t actually policy.
Diogenes 510
.
You are quite right, that’s the one 🙂
Center does his dough again. 🙂
260
ruawake
Posted Monday, March 26, 2012 at 4:16 pm | Permalink
Could there be defections from the ALP to LNP in QLD as well?
More likely LNP to KAP, if KAP gets opposition party status (+3 members with >10% state vote) any defector would get a significant payrise.
……….
Only if the turncoat were made leader. Ordinary backbenchers get their ordinary salary.
It’s more likely, though not at all likely, that a handful of LNP MPs could join KAP just for the fun of turning it into the official Opposition, not to mention depriving Labor with the resources that entails.
BB,
I once worked for a company that regularly sent out invoices at both the beginning and end of month KNOWING that many actually paid twice. When I commented on the practice I was told it was good for cashflow. Cashflow indeed. Needless to say I left this deceitful business.
BB. I have lurked consistently and recently developed the courage to comment occasionally…. Not necessarily with much intellectual vigor.
Make screen shots of the file attributes like author and dates created. Press the print screen key and then paste into Paint (in accessories) and save them as pictures…
Evening, Bludgers.
Emerged from under the doona late today. Chilly news from Queensland.
Did not turn TV on. Saved the batteries on the radios.
Did gardening. Chives are thriving. Mulched a lot. The roses are in flush.
The sage, lemon thyme … are doing well.
The quince tree is groaning with fruit. I like to segment one or two, poach in free-range water, with a touch of dark sugar and serve with a happy cow. Or, the Maggie Beer (sp)
option, quince jelly.
And the three pomegranates have excelled themselves! Even the coy one, which was heard to mutter one day: Erk.
The Cox Orange Pippin is robust, but two fruits remain, up high. Boxer dogs nibble.
It is now freezing here. Down the back, I grow globe artichokes. If they are not harvested – which is what happened – they dry off.
I have discovered that, when combined with some rosemary offcuts and burnt in an efficient Coonara with a bit of redgum, a pleasant aroma is produced.
Are there any known contras?
508
Protective Service Officers.
The training argument is rather knee-jerk (it is the crime investigation training they are skipping) but pretty much all the other criticisms are very true. They will not get enough people to fill all the positions they need filled to realise the policy, there will likely be low moral due to the more limited promotion opportunities (and lower pay), most of the stations ment to get PSOs under the policy have seen no violence in over a decade and half the violence that does occur does so during the day when the policy does not provide PSOs.
Puff and Bemused
Elijah Holcombe was mentally ill when he was shot by a plain clothes officer in Armidale, NSW in June 2009. He was holding a knife but was several metres from the officer and not threatening anyone (maybe himself)
A coronial inquiry was aborted because the Coroner was satisfied that there was evidence enough to convict a known person of a crime associated with that death.
The worst ones in NSW history perhaps are a little older now. David Gundy who was shot dead by the tactical response group in 1988 shortly after a police officer was murdered near the Domain and the definitely mentally disabled man shot dead on Bondi Beach in 1997.
I cannot think of any police officer, however, being convicted of any crime associated with a death caused during duty in the last 25 years in NSW, but I might be wrong.
Boinzo @ 517
You are too modest. 😉
[ I once worked for a company that regularly sent out invoices at both the beginning and end of month KNOWING that many actually paid twice. When I commented on the practice I was told it was good for cashflow. Cashflow indeed. Needless to say I left this deceitful business. ]
SpaceK – I knew a bloke and obviously do not associate with him who has bragged using secretarial agencies to send out blanket invoices on his behalf for small amounts (less than $300) to thousands of businesses picked out of the phone book. He stated large companies do not even query repair of a chair etc. Subequently I have heard he did not originate this scam.
I am also of the view that only specialist police should be armed only when needed. Same with tasers.
shellbell @ 520
Several of those cases listed looked like they could well have been disturbed people.
On the other hand, how many were hardened, armed criminals posing a serious threat?
The killings will only stop when the cops are disarmed.
Tigers 16 Raiders 30.
Dr John,
It is a shocking practice.
Nothing likes workers compensation in NSW to find bipartisan ripping off of the worker.
BOF could get John Della Bosca to consult on the matter as he did the major dismantling under Bob “I hate lawyers” Carr in 2001.
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=01/06/19/0386184
Mr Carr was excited with all the legal costs saved but it was also at a cost to workers’ entitlements to lump sums (commutations) meaning the long term dependency of injured workers nowadays.
Terry Sheehan (retired NSW pollie) was engaged to report on the reforms and ended up as the first Commissioner paid more than all judges in NSW except the Chief Justice.
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=01/06/19/0386184
The last commissioner appointed before March 2011 – Greg Keating, Paul’s brother.
BOF’s entry into the subject matter may stir John Robertson to do something, anything to prove he is worthy of opposition leader which now seems to be de facto held by KK whose media profile is on the ascend.
Clive Palmer has hinted that his claims the green movement was linked to the CIA were a ploy to keep negative attention away from Campbell Newman – according to the ABC website.
Is he saying there was no truth to his claims or what?
Last night there was some discussion here about posters joining the QLD ALP to help rebuild.
I should have said then that (based on my own experience) a time like this is absolutely the best time to join, especially if you want to influence the way the party operates.
In ten years” time, you’ll find yourself watching Ministers on TV and saying, “I knew her before she was in Parliament.”
Just reviewed today’s posts. I challenge any blog, anywhere, to produce such a high level of insightful and largely measured poltical commentary, humor (I will never look at electric fences in quite the same way again), whimsy (thanks Scringler) and obscure, but nonetheless fascinating subjects, (BBs Word query re date created, date modified). We owe a huge debt to William for creating such a space where this is possible. Long may it continue.
Bemused
Taufehema, on Puff’s list, was armed, and was related to two of the four people involved in the killing of a police officer in the south eastern suburbs of Sydney in 2002.
One of the Taufehema’s was acquitted by the Court of Criminal Appeal which caused a shockjock meltdown. The High Court heard an application for leave to appeal by the Crown in Sydney against the acquittal (ie whether the appeal was strong enough to warrant a full hearing in Canberra) at which there were twenty or thirty cops in uniform sitting in rows present.
The High Convict held 4-3 that Taufehema was wrongly acquitted.
ReachTel has state voting intention in NSW exactly where it was at the election, but 43% say they are dissatisfied with the first year of the O’Farrell government against 34% satisfied.
Scringler – Mmmm .. the Coonara smells wonderful but mostly I envy you the quinces which I haven’t seen for years.
[BB
You seem to have excellent grounds to take them to their professional body. It also has a distinct whiff of fraud to it.]
The situation is that a mate of mine (who had been my accountant when he was at another firm) went to work for this new firm. I followed him there (he’s honest, which is vital in an accountant). To impress his (then) new employer he listed personal chats as “billable time”. Naughty, but I’ve long forgiven him, as he’s a crash hot accountant. He’s now working for himself and is going gangbusters. I’m still with him, I moved with him.
The interim firm has the sh*ts that he left. So they sent nasty bills to all his old clients, including me. I’ve ignored them (wrongly) for too long, probably hoping they’d give up, but they haven’t.
So now we get to today, where they have finally instituted court proceedings, and seem to have faked a document today to “prove” the debt, claiming it is a document from 2007. Big mistake in my opinion, as the supposed author (according to the meta data) didn’t even work for them in 2007.
I’m prepared to pay what’s fair, but they have never given an inch. They’ve insisted on payment in full of their inflated bill. It’s three or four times what should have been billable. They hope I’ll offer half and they’ll still get double what they should have been paid.
I think it’s a big mistake to fake documents, especially when the faking can be detected so easily. I haven’t told them I’ve detected the faking, yet. Why spill the beans early to them?
The reason I’m shitty is that their attitude is a bit like Steve Lewis and his fake “Godwin Grant” email, actually.
GUARANTEED to get my gander up.
[ReachTel has state voting intention in NSW exactly where it was at the election, but 43% say they are dissatisfied with the first year of the O’Farrell government against 34% satisfied.]
This is the Daily Telegraph’s/News Ltd. “Frankenstein’s Monster”: they have spent so much time destroying people’s faiht in governance, that they’ve tainted any faith in any form of governance.
Do you have a comment Willam?
GUARANTEED to get my gander up.
Dander, Tony
I’m commented out, BB.
[“I am also of the view that only specialist police should be armed only when needed. Same with tasers.”]
I’m of the view that the police should take whatever and use whatever means to protect innocent law abiding citizens from criminals who couldn’t care less whose lives they destroy… including yours and your family’s.
I wouldn’t dare criticise police officers who deal with stuff every day that would cause some here into mental breakdown.
To the guy who was accused of armed robbery last week who died, I’m not too sure it was the tazer that killed him, more likely the pepper spray(asphixiation) yet no one has commented about banning capsicum spray for some reason. On todays case about the accused carjacker a family member of said family has some interesting comments on SMH which is well worth a read.
[I should have said then that (based on my own experience) a time like this is absolutely the best time to join, especially if you want to influence the way the party operates.]
Most definitely the best time to get in and help make a difference.
Even with BOF holding the polling at election levels I don’t think his Govt will be there for more than 2 terms. The Libs have a habit of doing themselves in nicely in NSW.
Shellbell, Bemused,
I seem to remember one, in Canberra i think, where a mother had tried unsuccessfully to get her son admitted to a pysch ward at all the hospitals and she called the cops to her unit because her son was having an episode and was a danger to himself and her. The man was in the unit, with no-one else and no gun. He was killed. I am not sure if he was the one who came out carryng a butter knife. Whichever case that was he ended up dead.
The mentally ill teenager in Melbourne was surrounded by the cops in a park, he had a knife or some sort and they shot him. They could have just contained him in the area until a psych team turned up. The only one he could have hurt was himself.
Too much Dirty Harry, not enough The Bill. I know who I would rather on my streets.
[ GUARANTEED to get my gander up. ]
Bushfire Bill – it would take a couple of phone calls and a favour used but would you as a Gilliard supporter like Mick Gatto’s phone number?
BB
[To impress his (then) new employer he listed personal chats as “billable time”.]
If you can prove that, you should refuse to pay up and do them for fraud.
SNIP: Abuse deleted – The Management.
[ GeeWizz Posted Monday, March 26, 2012 at 7:59 pm @ 486
I’m too young to remember, but from what I read stuff got built under Joh. ]
Yep, a bitumen road to Joh’s farm.
Come on Puff, tell how you REALLY feel about WeeJism!
From memory didn’t Joh build a nice big road to Russ hinze’s house ?
[ Dr John Posted Monday, March 26, 2012 at 8:56 pm @ 528
Clive Palmer has hinted that his claims the green movement was linked to the CIA were a ploy to keep negative attention away from Campbell Newman – according to the ABC website.
Is he saying there was no truth to his claims or what? ]
I think it’s more likely that he’s made this up after the event to cover his previous folly.
[I’m commented out, BB.]
We’ll be gentle with you, William.
The (my) theory is that when you trash the very concept of responsible government, trying to knock off your political enemies, you can easily trash your own side’s aspirations too.
Nice tweets from Ruppy, today.
[Rupert Murdoch @rupertmurdoch
Without trust, democracy, and order will go.
Of course there must be a full independent inquiry on both sides. In great detail, and with consequences. Trust must be established.
Cameron should have just followed history and flogged some seats in the Lords, if they still have value! precedents of centuries .
Great Sunday Times scoop. What was Cameron thinking? No-one, rightly or wrongly, will believe his story.]
Puff, the Magic Dragon.
[Shellbell, Bemused,
I seem to remember one, in Canberra i think, where a mother had tried unsuccessfully to get her son admitted to a pysch ward at all the hospitals and she called the cops to her unit because her son was having an episode and was a danger to himself ]
Such stories have been played out again and again in Victoria. As gun happy as the NSW cops are supposed to be they got nothing on Victorian cops shooting such civilians.