Destabilizing Australia: Will the LNP’s Culture Wars Be Victorious?

The AIM Network

12 months ago

By Denis Bright

The hopeful possibilities of reaching out to build a better future for Australians and for our peaceful regional neighbours are under challenge across the political spectrum from more opportunistic political goals. There are possibilities of a return to more social democratic agendas through better policy management in our existing market economy.

The Poll Bludger has conveniently summarized the political milestones which can be scarred by such manipulative politics. Perhaps positive existential changes are in the autumn winds for consolidation by Easter 2024.

Political Milestones Ahead

Here is a quick glance at just three emergent milestones in Dunkley on Outer Melbourne’s Southeast, Ipswich West in Queensland and Tasmania.

Dunkley by-election – 2 March

Inala by-election – 16 March

Ipswich West by-election – 16 March

Queensland councils – 16 March

Tasmania – 23 March

Dunstan by-election – 23 March

Cook by-election – Early 2024

Tasmanian Legislative Council – 4 May

Northern Territory – 24 August

NSW councils – 14 September

Australian Capital Territory – 19 October

Queensland – 26 October

Western Australia – 8 March 2025

Federal election – By 24 May 2025<

Introducing Dunkley Electorate

The federal LNP will benefit from the campaign by Advance as it strives to convince voters that their cost-of-living concerns are all due to the Albanese Government. There is not a scrap of evidence that the Albanese Government is fuelling inflationary pressures by over-spending. If there is a policy negative it is due to overly cautious responses to cost-of-living challenges.

Nikki Savva’s opinion piece in the SMH (15 February 2024) captured the mindset of Peter Dutton on his mission to win Dunkley for conservative populism. Dated polling released through Wikipedia for Dunkley shows that Labor is slightly ahead in polling from uComms.

The polling predicts a remarkably close result. Expect updates later this week to show the impact of the aggressive style of campaigning by both the LNP and the Advance lobbying network. The funding and steering committee of Advance should be fully investigated by mainstream media as this lobbying group seeks to have a higher profile in Australian political life.

**Waiting for a Polling Update in Dunkley**

A better-than-expected result for Labor’s Jodie Belyea in Dunkley, might make Peter Dutton a casualty of the by-election campaign.

Now Moving onto Ipswich West in Queensland

Once again, conservative populists have tried to make the Ipswich West by-election results an embarrassment for Labor’s Premier Steven Miles with a focus on tough on crime strategies.

Readers can listen to the tone of political discussion in Ipswich West as reported by Radio 4BC to evaluate the even-handedness of the interview between Peter Gleeson and the endorsed LNP Candidate, Darren Zanow.

The negative coverage of the performance of the Queensland Labor Government in this Radio 4BC interview on issues relating to crime and cost-of-living increases contrasts with the current government towards the City of Ipswich.

Both tough on crime strategies and attacks on levels of government spending have a long political history in Ipswich.

Almost a century ago now, the state seats of Rosewood and Ipswich fell temporarily as the Great Depression approached in 1929, a few months before the Great Crash on Wall Street. The seat of Bremer remained with Labor. Both William Cooper in Rosewood and Dave Gledson in Ipswich failed to win their local seats that year. The current state seat of Ipswich West now includes parts of the Ipswich and Rosewood electorates. This gives Ipswich West a level of volatility which has sent two separate LNP representatives to parliament since 1960 and a One Nation state member.

Responding to concerns about crime in Ipswich, the Queensland Premier and Police Minister Mark Ryan announced the following initiatives on 24 February 2024:

The Miles government is making a further significant investment in the capabilities of the Ipswich Police District.

Following a request from the Queensland Police Service for additional police resources for the Ipswich Police District, the government is providing the Queensland Police Service with a funding boost of $37.6 million to deliver the following additional resources:

Premier Steven Miles assured the voters in Ipswich West that:

… Every Queenslander should feel safe in their homes and community. There will always be more police under my government.

This investment will see dozens more police officers, mobile police beats, and extra resources.

This is to keep residents safe, and to catch offenders…

But Labor’s Tough on Crime Strategies must always be embedded in Labor values to protect human rights with the delivery of sustainable and socially just economic and community development policies. This contrasts with the imprisonment of the now deceased Bob Gibbs MLA (Wolston electorate in Ipswich) for joining in Right to March resistance during the Bjelke-Petersen era in the 1980s.

Street crime is not the only form of criminal activity which state Labor governments have successfully confronted. Previous Labor Governments of Queensland have come down heavily on corrupt practices in the corridors of power and influence within the former Independent Ipswich City Council. This Council was placed under the control of a team of administrators with criminal convictions and even prison sentences to the worst offenders (Brisbane Times 9 January 2020).

Labor also formed the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) under the Goss Government in the 1990s as an income earner for the people of Queensland through strategic investment programmes. Unlike Queensland Treasury investments in the Bjelke-Petersen era, the QIC became a quasi-independent investment arm of the Queensland Government. Although the state premier and state treasurer are the only supervising shareholders in the QIC, it is quite unethical for them to be involved in day-to-day operations of the investment fund. However, the Queensland Government can make recommendations to the QIC to implement its planning goals (ShapingSEQ Plan 2023).

Premier Steven Miles in his capacity as Minister for Infrastructure was quite prepared to note my suggestions about the use of QIC investment and direct state government funding for the redevelopment of parts of the Ipswich CBD at a social function at parliament house in November 2023. It is an asset to have such approachable leaders in office with polling profiles that are tracking upwards in the latest poling from uComms in The Courier Mail (24 February 2024).

Co-investment between government agencies and the private sector can strengthen the economic, social and environmental goals embedded in the ShapingSEQ Plan 2023. It is an outreach of the New Keynesianism which has no rapport in far-right LNP circles with their fixation on the bricks and mortar of suburban shopping complexes in places like Yamanto in the Ipswich West electorate. Responsible government intervention can broaden the base of such projects.

Yamanto Shopping Village is a neighbourhood centre anchored by a high performing Woolworths supermarket, Super Amart, McDonalds, Caltex and another 25 specialty tenants. The village is situated on a prominent corner location 35km south-west of Brisbane and 5km south of Ipswich City Centre.

It is a credit to the Queensland Government that revenue from the QIC is available to enhance community development options across Ipswich. QIC returned $127.1 million in profits to the state government with a return of 20 percent on assets in the latest available annual report for 2022-23 from assets under management.

Not all its decisions have great logical appeal, including the wisdom of some QIC’s property investments in the USA in shopping malls and offices to deliver profits back to Queensland.

At the far-off Ohio State University in Columbus, the QIC invested $US483 million in the management of CampusParc to manage the car-parking facilities for students and staff as well as clients to the Wexner Medical Centre on Campus in 2012. This property asset has almost doubled in value according to Bloomberg’s Company News Report (27 September 2023). QIC has invested in similar facilities at Northeastern University in Boston with another 50-year contract. Profit taking on such deals can provide additional revenue for the Queensland Government.

A cool one billion dollars at least would be available from the sale of some US property assets from the still lucrative US property market could assist in revitalising the Ipswich CBD through new co-investment arrangements to transform Top of Town in Ipswich which has suffered from decisions by previous Independent Ipswich City Council administrations to move the hub of retailing across the Bremer River to the Riverlink Shopping Centre with great problems to cross-river traffic flows.

The movement of the hub of retailing in Ipswich to the Riverlink Shopping Centre in North Ipswich through the efforts of insiders in the former Independent Ipswich City Council still needs further investigation by Queensland CCC. Hopefully, QCC’s prior investigations of these issues are not permanently closed.

Installing a new member of parliament at a mid-term by-election is always challenging as shown by the close results in a previous by-election which made the transition from a retiring Ivor Marden MLA to Vi Jordan MLA in 1966. This was indeed a close call. This time Wendy Bourne does not have such high-profile contenders to challenge her transition to serve the people of Ipswich West (Images: Wikipedia).

And Onto the Tasmanian Elections

Any tidal wave of favourable LNP election results in Dunkley, Inala and Ipswich West, would create some momentum for survival of the Rockliff Liberal Government which is the last cab off the rank in this round of elections in March 2024 (Image: Wikipedia)

**The Current State of Play in Tasmania**

Available polling from Tasmania still predates the decision of the currently dissident Independents and former Liberal Party members to bring down the government. The Jackie Lambie Network (JLN) is now a significant factor in the forthcoming Tasmanian election. JLN was outpolling the Greens in the now dated YouGov polling (Image: Wikipedia):

If the JLN co-operates with Tasmanian Labor, Rebecca White could be premier after the Tasmanian elections. This would be a historic first to have Labor in-control of all Australian states and territories with Anthony Albanese in charge of the national government.

By the next full moon at Easter, these trendlines will have become political reality with immense longer-term impact on Australians. Keep watching the events as they unfold. Don’t be afraid to have your say on the AIM Network Feedback line unless you want the secretive streeting committees of Advance to have greater controls over our political futures.

Your critical responses are a real barrier to more sleep-walking into the future and more compromises with national sovereignty by obscure lobbyists.

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Denis Bright (pictured) is a financial member of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA). Denis is committed to consensus-building in these difficult times. Your feedback from readers advances the cause of citizens’ journalism. Full names are not required when making comments. However, a valid email must be submitted if you decide to hit the Replies Button.