Any close observer of Queensland politics — or rather what the press gallery and the pundits write about Queensland politics — could be forgiven for thinking the general approach to election date tipping was to write a story every day linking anything political the Labor party had done to a “possible early election announcement”. The idea might be that eventually such a story will have to be followed by the aforesaid election announcement. But Crikey can now confirm that the “imminent election” may in fact be imminent.
Anna Bligh’s been busy lining up a few ducks in a row. All eyes have been on the plethora of retirement announcements from sitting MPs this week. But keener eyes might have been trained on Police Minister Judy Spence’s statement that she wouldn’t be retiring. Spence is one of the long serving MPs first elected in 1989, and the only Minister to have had her seat affected substantially by the redistribution.
Last year, elements in the Labor Left were very keen to see her replaced. It’s not just that Spence’s perceived closeness to the Police Union and law and order tub thumping hasn’t made her universally loved. It’s more the case that a lot of the Left weren’t happy with concessions that had to be made to the AWU to smooth Bligh’s path to the premiership. Mike Kaiser’s ascension to the chief of staff gig has to be seen in this context. So to keep all the factions sweet, and to achieve the Premier’s desire to demonstrate party renewal and distance her government from Peter Beattie’s, enough retirements had to be engineered to accommodate Spence’s wish to dig her heals in and to enable Left and Right to be satisfied with the results of instant preselections.
Federal politics is also influencing the timing of the poll. The stimulus package was the key. State Labor wanted to be sure that it would pass, and that the Feds weren’t going to be rushing off to an election in 2009. You can now tick those boxes. There’s also the political bonus (however cynical) of voters stimulated by the ALP with hard cash — and the additional bonus of lots of footage of Barnaby Joyce railing against that cash and by implication the new library for the local school.
Every Labor candidate in Brisbane will be running against the National Party no matter how “liberal” the local LNP hopeful is — and most aren’t all that liberal. The “economic debate”, federal Coalition style, is supposed to play a starring role in the theatre of the state election. Nor will federal instability help convince voters sceptical that the Borg’s shiny new vehicle might be about to run off its rails.
The ALP is now well and truly on a campaign footing. As I understand it, the final decision to pull the trigger hasn’t definitely been made. There’s still a small chance that an election won’t be announced in the next fortnight, and if so, the government will go close to full term. But from what Labor sources tell Crikey, if you wanted to have a bet, the odds you’d get for an election being called on Monday or Tuesday would be pretty short.
Good comments again Mark. Yes there were elements in the Left that wanted to run against Judy Spence but the left made a deal with Anna and the other factions that would be NO preselection battles, and if anyone in the Left had the temerity to nominate they would be expelled from the Left, which is exactly what happened to me and one other. Accordingly for a party that espouses democracy, it sure as hell doesn’t practice it. While I sympathise with the Left in their attempts to attain the magical 50% plus 1 at state conference, in order to achieve this they have become a carbon copy of their enemies, as,regrettably, has the Federal Labor Party.
I now realise that Queensland Labor is beyond redemption, the concentration of power in to a very few hands at the top now makes it almost indistinguishable from the Joh Government in its final throes, corruption and nepotism are rampant and it no longer pretends to follow its own objectives and policy platform. Decisions are made for the wrong reasons.
On the election, Anna was supposed to call a couple of weeks ago, but the floods and bushfires got in the way, the date is supposed to be 28 March and everyone has been told to prepare for a short campaign.
There have been several campaign launches, and we ourselves are going to one for John kelly at Lockyer this afternoon.
keep up the good work
Mike Crook
I will be mightily pissed if Bligh goes early. It is bad policy anyway, but would be a blatant deception of the electorate she’s being promising to go the full term. It’s also bad politics, but clearly Labor’s loss in WA and its near loss in the Northern Territory haven’t taught Labor the lesson it will suffer if it goes early in the smart State – or is it the Q2 state now?
Is there still time to remove Qld Labor riff-raff? Judy Spence is a huge liability with an administration record fit for the shredder. Every portfolio she’s had is signatured with blunders, probes, investigations and inquiries. Deaths of children in foster care (Forde Inquiry), the Carter Report into cruel treatment of the disabled in custody, the Palm Island riots peppered with ham-fisted harsh and boorish decisions over the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee, the trial of Chris Hurley and even the timing of police awards for the disgraceful injustices of yet another human rights travesty. The member for Mt Gravatt is all about skipping due process giving the all clear to Broncos players on alleged sexual assault charges to hit the field while encouraging fans to cheer them on! As Minister for Disabilities Minister she lands in the Human Rights Commission for sacking an injured worker and tells Springborg he’s a dill for suggesting she pay the litigant’s costs. Again taxpayers are slugged for another slip-up by the hapless MP who’s elevated to Police Minister wearing the ignominious ‘Dense Spence’ moniker ! And from there it’s all pretty much downhill. She’s apparently never been briefed about QPS officers deployed to escort Ronan Lee’s staff to a court case involving the then Labor MP or used as nursemaids to caution Lee every time he lost the plot. That no one knew there was a dangerous MP on the loose speaks volumes about Qld police, its Minister and the parliament. The QPS didn’t advise it was sending a crack tactical response squad to her run down rental property to evict a tenant later cleared of all charges Spence laid against him. “All I wanted was the broken bathroom tiles to be fixed” said the relieved father of two as he held his pregnant wife. Spence is out of the affirmative action era where Labor threw darts in the dark for skirts. Those living in the new Sunnybank electorate should closely examine Spence if they’re looking for an astute, relevant advocate.
the election will be called on Sunday 22 Feb.
She’s not as dense as you think Cathy. Spence’s husband pictured on her website works for the local community centre as a tradesman repairing homes for pensioners and low income earners. I guess that’s government funded too which puts them both on the public purse. The Bonnie and Clyde of Brisbane’s south are in politics for the spoils but then most of our politicians up this way operate with the same ethic.