By Denis Bright
Jessica van Vonderen’s interview with Premier Miles on 2 February 2024 was a launch pad for a more in-depth analysis of Queensland politics. Good critical news reporting as provided by ABC News introduces those structures of power and influence. From timber panelled offices at Parliament House and 1 William Street, cabinet ministers and trusted advisers steer reactions to topical incidents on our behalf.
As mentioned by ABC news reader Lexy Hamilton-Smith prior to Jessica van Vonderen’s interview with Premier Miles, the Queensland Labor Government is striving to provide cost-of-living relief to Queensland households. The Premier is also under pressure from reactions to climate change, crime and the delivery of health services and other major infrastructure commitments.
Milestones on the way forward are the local government elections across Queensland on 16 March 2024 with by-elections in Ipswich West and Inala on the same date. A good result in the Brisbane City Council election and local government elections in adjacent councils of Moreton Bay, Redcliffe, Redlands and Logan will provide a morale booster for either side of politics. The political stakes are particularly high in the weeks ahead.
Twelve years ago, Premier Can Do Campbell won the Queensland election for the LNP on an epic landslide to Queensland Conservatives with a 13.7 percent swing against Labor after preferences. There was a reduction of 15.6 percent in Labor’s primary vote with the loss of forty-four of Labor’s fifty-one state seats under challenge from the 2010 state election result.
Despite the eminent qualifications of the Treasurer and Financial Minister in the Bligh Government, ministerial advisers had panicked over conservative reactions to the budget deficits incurred during the GFC. Its impact had global proportions, but eyewitness news services focused on local debt issues. These concerns propelled both Premier Campbell Newman and Prime Minister Tony Abbott into Office.
Premier Miles noted that commitment to a 75 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2035 over prevailing emission levels in 2005 is in the best traditions of sustainable economic management and commitment to employment levels in new industries associated with alternative energy, advancement of hydrogen technology and the generation of lower cost electricity. There are commitments to provide cost-of-living relief for every household in Queensland during 2024 with particular emphasis on more disadvantaged households.
Premier Miles also promised a commitment to Tough on Crime Strategies. Such issues will be emphasized by the LNP in the Ipswich West by-election.
Official police data for the Ipswich Police District shows that crime rates as opposed to numbers of crimes have not increased so dramatically since 2000. Terrible incidents are still embedded in this data. However, the trendlines are not as alarming as claimed by the Murdoch Press, Sky News or other sensational media outlets.
There are variations in the rates of criminal offenses.
The Queensland Labor Government is striving for the right balance between responsible Tough on Crime Strategies and generation of local jobs, TAFE training programmes and new infrastructure options.
Communities such as the partially gentrified suburb of West End in Brisbane benefit when the corporate sector takes up Transport Oriented Development (TOD) initiatives at places like Montague Markets in West End, Brisbane are successful private sector initiatives:
Spacious shopping precincts with high profile retail anchors co-exist with professional health services and layers of medium rise housing units.
With significant support from government or its investment agency in the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) could transform Top of Town in Ipswich to make survival easier for small business outlets. Despite the very best initiatives by small entrepreneurs and family businesses, more support from government and the corporate sector should be able to expand business opportunities.
Fringe benefits from these co-investment initiatives by government and the corporate sector could assist in delivering a new transport terminal for buses and trains to Top of Town, immediate action on the Springfield-Ipswich Transport Corridor, new inner-city social housing for Ipswich and initiatives in flood control measures and landscaping in the vicinity of Timothy Molony Oval closer to the Bremer River. The combined leadership talents of a more progressive Ipswich City Council and the possible arrival of Wendy Bourne as Labor member for Ipswich West with the former Labor member Jim Madden on the Ipswich Council as a representative for Division Four would ensure that those two levels of government are reading from a similar page-book.
Perusal of Treasurer Jim Chalmer’s Monthly Essay (February 2023) also endorses the commitment to New Keynesianism with all the resources available to the federal Labor Government.
In a time of serial disruption – to our economy, our society and our environment – the treasurer argues for the place of values and optimism in how we rethink capitalism:
In late October, just before the Albanese government’s first budget, a journalist I have known for two decades messaged me a quote from one of the earliest Greek philosophers, Heraclitus: “No man ever steps in the same river twice. For it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man.”
The “Washington Consensus” became shorthand to describe recommendations and orthodoxies for developing countries urged by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank – a reference to each institution’s proximity to the other in Washington, DC. Over time it became a caricature for ever more simplistic and uniform policy prescriptions for “more market, not less.” This school of thought assumed that markets would typically self-correct before disaster struck.
It’s clear now that the problem wasn’t so much more markets as poorly designed ones. Carefully constructed markets are a positive and powerful tool. As the influential economist Mariana Mazzucato has explored in her work, markets built in partnership through the efforts of business, labour and government are still the best mechanism we have to efficiently and effectively direct resources. But these considered and efficient markets were not what the old model delivered. And while the 2008 crisis finally exposed the illegitimacy of this approach, no fresh consensus has yet taken its place.
With the support offered by three levels of Labor administration, it is now time for Steven Miles to take the responsible policy plunge to save the State Labor Government from its Underdog Status as identified by the Premier himself in his epic interview with Jessica van Vonderen.
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Gee Denis, do you think that Queenslanders have forgotten the disastrous Campbell Newman Murdoch Media Monopoly Axis of Evil that very nearly destroyed the Queensland Public Service (as preferred)?
.
Did Christifulli really lock his office door and refuse to talk to public servants attempting to do their job?
.
How long has it taken the QPS survivors of this neo-liarbral attack on community values to re-build the organisation? My advice is that there is STILL a lot of work to be done by the dedicated but over-stretched QPS staff.
.
But will government expenditure extend out into the region with improved health, education & policing services? Or remain, glued into the SE corner growing like a pimple as Australian voters recognise that clean, air, wide open spaces and little traffic congestion in a wonderful climate on the beaches can be achieved by escaping from the chaos of the metropolitan cities.
The local government elections in Queensland on 16 March are an opportunity to support new progressive voices. Soon streetscapes will be accommodating random faces particularly outside Brisbane City. With control of planning and local environmental issues, local government is very important.
Gold Coast streetscapes are becoming littered with independent personalities seeking election to Council. Who do all these faces represent? Are they all personal ego trips to power?
Great article thanks Denis!
A strong voice against the social divide from Denis
Steven Miles as a new Premier has had a baptism of fire (flood and Cyclone) and has come through quite well so far.
One thing Labor will need to do is put him through an intensive course on public speaking as he lacks confidence and fails to project strength of character and determination.
But still way ahead of the CLP opposition.
Agreed Terence. Steven needs to be on fire in responding to the concerns of the electorate. Drug abuse and homelessness plague our cities and regional towns. The suggestions in the article about making Ipswich thrive again will bring alienated voters back to Labor. The LNP failed to help places like Ipswich during their sinle term in office between 2012 and 2015. LNP insiders are keen to promote nasty forms of far-right populism.
Labor fix housing affordability crisis by give loans to renters to cover cost of upfront bond.
This approach to create inflation works well in communist country and it make lot sense.
If the money given direct to the property infestor they need declare it as income and repay loan.
That problem unfair dear comrade.
Sam Kekkovich,
Lambastador,
Dept Inflation Creation for Komrades
The Labor Movement must revisit its traditional populist style which brought decades of good government particularly in Queensland and NSW. Thanks to Denis for reminding our elites that they are Labor Party members first and foremost. Welcoming feedback from grassroots opinion is so important compared with paid input from bug consultants and others who usually follow the neoliberal line.
Tony Blair won a grand majority in Britain and then sent the nation off to wars in the Middle East and defence ties to Israel with all its illegal weapons of mass destruction on land and in submarine fleets on both the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.
Labor representatives at all levels of government – federal , state and local government- should espouse Labour principles.
I doubt he has forgotten Can-do, Morrison and Abbott.
But like may people who have been around for a bit, he has seen the slow decline into neoliberalism, an alien ideology for many Labor supporters, esp since de industrialisation.
One iota better than the likes of Dutton is not that good.
Thanks for an interesting article on the Qld state policies.
Recent ABC News Comments on this issue: https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/queensland-governments-secret-polling-released-revealing-drop-in-voter-satisfaction-over-crime-handling-housing-and-olympics/ar-BB1iiYjs: Polling Trends in Inala and Ipswich West can be expected closer to the by-election date.
Meanwhile, $1 billion in capital investment for Ipswich in the 2023-24 state budget has not been sufficient to address local economic and social problems:
I stand by what I said in this article:
Communities such as the partially gentrified suburb of West End in Brisbane benefit when the corporate sector takes up Transport Oriented Development (TOD) initiatives at places like Montague Markets in West End, Brisbane are successful private sector initiatives.
With significant support from government or its investment agency in the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) could transform Top of Town in Ipswich to make survival easier for small business outlets. Despite the very best initiatives by small entrepreneurs and family businesses, more support from government and the corporate sector should be able to expand business opportunities (Top Town Web Site: https://www.discoveripswich.com.au/attraction/top-of-town/- )
Making Heritage City Great Again
Fringe benefits from these co-investment initiatives by government and the corporate sector could assist in delivering a new transport terminal for buses and trains to Top of Town, immediate action on the Springfield-Ipswich Transport Corridor, new inner-city social housing for Ipswich and initiatives in flood control measures and landscaping in the vicinity of Timothy Molony Oval closer to the Bremer River. The combined leadership talents of a more progressive Ipswich City Council and the possible arrival of Wendy Bourne as Labor member for Ipswich West with the former Labor member Jim Madden on the Ipswich Council as a representative for Division Four would ensure that those two levels of government are reading from a similar page-book.
Monetisations? The world fattens yet breaks down for the stress.
Maybe not quite that gloomy. At least for most of us.
A meditation on changeability, thoughtful article..
Thanks Paul. I am always optimistic and appreciate your comments.
Instead of real news, the Courier Mail is always running a gloomy campaign against the Queensland Government. In Ipswich, there was one billion dollars invested in capital works in the 2023-24 state budget. This is achieved within a balanced budget derived additional revenue from additional mineral royalties which the LNP opposed.
Without the vast resources of corporate support for the state LNP, progressive commentators should warn of the dangers of another bout of Campbell Newmanism and a return to Bjelke-Petersen rhetoric in the Ipswich West and Inala by-elections.
As a member of the MEAA and former QTU activist, I will always speak out against the shadow of Deep South politics which has been imported from the USA to Australia through the training of young conservatives conservatives on the promotion trail through US government funded Political Studies Tours to promote the US as a bastion of a noble democracy with its links to corporate power.
Family members walked the streets of Ipswich since the 1870s and tried to forge a socially just Australia.
I am proud of my association with Ipswich and its vibrant Labor Movement. The working people of Rosewood brought a Labor member to parliament house as early as 1896. the seat of Ipswich was added in 1904. Independent Labor’s James Wilkinson of Martin Street, Ipswich represented Moreton in federal parliament in Melbourne after the 1901 election.
On the site of the Post-Office Square in the Brisbane CBD, the daunting statue of Deceased Nationalist Senator Colonel Glasgow presides over the pleasant parklands were indigenous activist Dundelli was executed in 1855 in a botched judicial hanging that resulted in a cruel death to our indigenous hero. The statue faces away from the terrible execution site.
Sorry, I made a typo in the spelling of Timothy Oval. Monsignor Molony respected the loyalty of his parishioners to the Labor Movement. I never heard him making one public criticism of the Labor Movement as a young pupil of CBC Ipswich.
In Sydney, the Labor Day Parade gave three cheers for Cardinal Patrick Moran for his support for the Labor Movement in 1891 as Australia’s worst depression to that date approached in the 1890s.
Families were expected to tolerate falling real wages to maintain corporate profits from Barcaldine to Bondi.
Thanks Paul. I am always optimistic and appreciate your comments.
Instead of real news, the Courier Mail is always running a gloomy campaign against the Queensland Government. In Ipswich, there was one billion dollars invested in capital works in the 2023-24 state budget. This is achieved within a balanced budget derived additional revenue from additional mineral royalties which the LNP opposed.
Keep up your commitment to the people of Ipswich Wendy Bourne (Labor candidate) and Premier Miles: Neoliberals belong to the Bjelke-Petersen past and not to the future of Ipswich. Only Labor will command those resources needed to combat crime and to rebuilt the civic heart of Ipswich which was set-back by the bad decisions of a previous independent local council. The commercial heart of Ipswich was moved from a heritage CBD to Riverlink Shopping Centre in North Ipswich with great disruption to traffic flows, at peak hours. Wendy Bourne will of course be supported by Labor-oriented members of Council like Sheila Ireland as Mayor of Ipswich after 16 March.