The row over Queensland local government mergers seems set to flare again this week as the Government rams through changes to the Electoral Act allowing Queensland councils to hold plebiscites on the plans.

The pressure is on new Queensland Premier Anna Bligh to revise or reverse the merger proposals, but they are also causing concerns for another Labor leader.

The current edition of Queensland Country Life runs the results of a readership survey on the subject. It’s not a scientific survey, but it suggests that Queenslanders still have those baseball bats Kevin Rudd’s old boss Wayne Goss talked about – ready to use on the local lad:

  • 17.7% of respondents rated the Howard Government’s handling of council amalgamations as very good and 34.3% rated it as good. In contrast, just 1.1% rated federal Labor’s response as very good and only 5.7% as good.
  • 89.5% agreed with the Howard Government’s plans for plebiscites on amalgamations, while only 7.3% were undecided.
  • 21.5% of respondents said the forced amalgamation issue had changed the way they would vote at the federal election.
  • 6.9% of respondents said they intended to vote Labor at the next election, down from the 7.7% who said they voted Labor at the last election.
  • John Howard was overwhelmingly the preferred prime minister, on 71.3%. Kevin Rudd was the choice of 13.4% of respondents.
  • 78.3% of respondents said rural Queensland would be worse off under Kevin Rudd. 5.5% said it would be better off, with 16.2% undecided.

Labor has hoped to win big in Queensland with two locals – Rudd and shadow treasurer Wayne Swan – so prominent in its team.

If the cockies aren’t converted, they will have to hope that the talk about electorates like McPherson – a Gold Coast seat with a 13.9 per cent Liberal margin that shouldn’t be in play – has some basis.