By Denis Bright
Clutching their Little Blue Book of Motherhood Statements in Those Right Priorities for Queensland’s Future, the state LNP candidates are all hoping for a landslide victory. The Murdoch press and its television outlets would love a return to the Joh era. Where David Crisafulli does offer a pragmatic policy, it should be favourably considered by the Miles Government out of respect for mainstream democratic processes and as a sign of even-handedness in leadership.
The Crisafulli initiative on a mental health facility to assist troubled youth in Central Queensland is of course a proposal in this category.
However, over the past century in Queensland, victory for Queensland conservatives has been full of nasty surprises. Time for a Change in 1957 repeated a similar positive mantra to that of Premier Arthur Moore. Soon, essential rail transport links to the Gold Coast were closed, married female teachers dismissed on 31 December from 1958 as a cost saving and unplanned urban sprawl became the buzz word against so-called Red Tape in a motorized Brisbane. These austerity savings were splurged on Queensland’s centenary celebrations in 1959 and the visit of Princess Alexandra. I recall that an old relative informed me that the Governor’s train was decorated and painted for a picnic in the woods in the late Premier Nicklin’s electorate.
In the prime years of my grandparents, Premier Arthur Moore rose from obscurity to fame at the 1929 state election on the eve of the Great Depression by strategies to free Queensanders from the so-called grip of the Labor Party over the previous fourteen years. There were promises of giving young people a chance and a better way under the banner of Country Party Conservatism as interpreted by the member for Aubigny in the Dalby district. The initial positivity of the 1929 campaign soon changed to more austerity, perks for the rural sector and use of the gerrymander to keep the conservatives in control of the Deep North.
The Moore ascendency which lasted just one term made inroads into the Labor Heartland in Queensland to consolidate gains made by Queensland conservatives in 1926. State seats like Brisbane, Bremer in Ipswich, Bowen, Maryborough, Mount Morgan and Fortitude Valley were now highly marginal after the 1929 election as Queensland conservatives took aim at Labor heartlands with populist jingles about happy times ahead.
In far-off Colombus, Ohio at Ohio State University, Emeritus Professor Gerald Kosicki at the School of Communication has pioneered research on the capacity of conservative populists to forge great victories by framing the political agenda with documents like The Right Priorities for Queensland’s Future with the support of mainstream media networks.
The current success of this style of campaigning shows up in the Freshwater Opinion Polling as published in the AFR (30 September 2024):
Premier Steven Miles is on track for a wipeout at next month’s Queensland state election, as the Liberal-National opposition opens a 12-point two-party-preferred lead, according to a new poll.
The latest Australian Financial Review-Freshwater Strategy survey shows Labor’s primary support has collapsed 10 points to 30 per cent since its third successive election victory in 2020 as Queenslanders struggle with cost-of-living and housing pressures, along with widespread fury ov handling crime.
The AFR report by Queensland correspondent James Hall offers a technicolor synopsis of the state of play in Queensland politics from the application of the Freshwater Strategic data:
In the words of the lyrics from Simon and Garfunkel of 1964 fame, Queenslanders’ concerns about crime fully assimilated as electoral concerns. Like the words of the prophets on those subway walls and tenement halls, the Miles Government has time in caretake mode to expunge this political graffiti in its own political communications.
The Queensland Government is already tough on crime. A lot of the perceived criminal activity is hearsay to scare the Mamas and the Papas:
A police badge can emerge when least expected through the immature application of Jack’s Law as noted by O’Brien Criminal & Civil Solicitors (2 September 2024):
So, the recent plan to expand Jack’s Law to include Queensland shopping centres, licensed premises, and entertainment venues has sparked a heated debate. This legislation, initially introduced to combat knife crime, has now broadened its scope. Now, it allows police to conduct warrantless searches using handheld metal detectors in more public areas.
While some hail it as necessary for public safety, others criticise it. Opponents say it potentially might be an overreach and infringement on civil liberties.
Jack’s Law was enacted in response to the tragic stabbing of 17-year-old Jack Beasley in 2019. The law initially allowed police to use metal detectors in designated Safe Night Precincts and public transport hubs to detect hidden weapons. Since its implementation, over five hundred weapons have been seized.
The expansion of Jack’s Law comes in the wake of several high-profile violent incidents. For example, the tragic Bondi Junction attack resulted in multiple fatalities. Similar events have intensified calls for broader police powers to prevent similar tragedies.
As a result, Queensland Premier Steven Miles emphasised the need for such measures. He stated: “Community safety is a key priority,” and highlighted the success of the law in confiscating dangerous weapons.
Each of the LNP’s chosen disciples applies The Right Priorities Document with some zeal as in the local state electorate of Maiwar in Brisbane’s Inner West in a seat which is held by Green MP, Michael Berkman (Image: LNP):
The sheer opportunism of the LNP’s Tough on Crime Rhetoric is revealed by the failure of the Brisbane City Council’s chosen Whitebox Management company to turn on the security lights adjacent to the refurbished Witton Barracks Community Centre which adjoins a popular park for drinking at nighttime. Both railway station staff and even the isolated employees at Whitebox have some fears about parking in this locality.
I have reported the matter to the Indooroopilly Police, Radio 4BC and all LNP representatives in this area. The Witton Barracks area still remains in darkness. The young constable who noted my complain at Indooroopilly Polce Station had completely good rapport with members of the public. Officious practices give the police and politicians always give authority a bad name.
Labor will always be tough on crime and responsive to progressive crime prevention. Much crime is embedded in disadvantage and mental health problems. Tackle these social structures and the battle against crime is well underway. There is little mention of the need to crackdown on sale of party drugs which contribute to premature ageing and those mental health problems which emerge later in life from the use of unknown substances.
The sources of corruption and wholesale tax avoidance as a contribution to budgetary problems is also absent from LNP communications (ABC News 8 November 2023). Readers can scroll the lists available on ABC News sites to see which corporate icons engage in horrible games with the ATO at great expense to the budgets of governments at all levels. Readers should check on which companies are on the tax avoidance shame list from ABC News in the latest and previous editions of the tax avoidance lists.
Our Queensland government does not overspend. The current budget is accompanied by a commitment to $23 billion in capital works in a $93 billion budget for 2024-25. David Crisafulli’s team opposed the increases in mineral royalties which keep the current budget in good shape.
In the traditions of Professor Kosicki’s communication research, the weighting given by the LNP to its tough on crime rhetoric is an attempt to jam out real issues of concern across the electorate which are related to disadvantage, mental health problems and cost-of-living issues. The real purpose of this populist rhetoric is to win government along the old precedents set by Arthur Moore, Joh and Campbell Newman who all hoped for political dynasties that could last for decades as in those dark years between 1970 and 1988 which ended in the criminal proceedings of the Fitzgerald Inquiry into public corruption.
The Freshwater Polling shows that the LNP’s framing and agenda setting of news is working:
The LNP’s rhetoric about crime is opportunistic and is devoid of real attention to the mafias behind the illegal drug trade, official corruption and tax avoidance on a grand scale.
The LNP’s Right Priorities are largely policy free zones. However, the Freshwater polling shows that the LNP rhetoric has gained traction. The electorate is responding as an echo chamber to the LNP rhetoric that is repeated in the mainstream media with quasi-professional zeal.
These political illusions can still be challenged in the campaign ahead so that Labor can campaign on the issues that really matter. If both mainstream parties want bipartisanship on some initiatives, that is good for leadership credibility on both sides.
And irony of ironies, back at Ohio State University in Columbus, the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) has sold its assets in CampusPrac and Traffic Management valued at $Aus 1 billion at a massive profit for Queensland taxpayers (Bloomberg 28 September 2023). Best wishes to our state from the cash flows being generated from the Northwestern Universities Parking Systems.
David Crisafulli should indeed his own errors of judgment in relation to that prior opposition to increases in mineral royalties and acknowledge that the Queensland economy is not in chaos.
The current campaign is not over. Every percentage gain in Labor’s primary vote saves Labor seats from the LNP landslide which is being fostered by the LNP’s Policy Free Zone in That Little Blue Book.
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“They” never learn, not enough to permanently avoid the agonising arsholes like Jo B-J or C Newman, heads of an old organised crookedness criminality corporate bloodsucking parasitic concept called Conservatism. Crisafulli is typically putrefaction material, a media yabberer all front, no back or sides, no intellect, honesty, plans, achievements, who is hairblown, drycleaned superficiality. If the voter wants fairyfloss front and a silly dream of she’ll be right, give the “other bastard a go,”
I’m a Queenslander with a long involvement in politics and apart from the LNP patting each other on the back I cannot see how the LNP is going to get in.
As for a “landslide”, let’s wait and see.
The Minerals Council of Australia together with The Queensland Resources Council have been running a high profile television advertising campaign against the level of royalties collected from miners, in particular coalminers in the state.
The Resources Council pumped some $40 million into the campaign against the Queensland Labor government so why would they do this when the LNP have said that they would not interfere with coal royalties if elected to government in October 2024.
Well, what the LNP have actually said was that The LNP will not make any changes to revenue-raising coal royalties in the first term of government Opposition Leader” David Crisafulli has said.
So that’s the deal that the LNP have signed up to with the coalminers – we will reduce the royalties only if we get a second term.
Newscorp and SKY are expecting a LNP landslide and they too have been spending a lot of energy, on-air and in print to get the LNP elected – I wonder what their deal is ?
I note, incidentally, that according to the Queensland Police Service, the rate of child offenders dropped by 2% in 2023-24. Since 2012-13, rates have decreased by 18%.
Oh Dear, could the LNP be telling us porkies (again) ?
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I really enjoyed reading this! Such a change from the flood of lies and rubbish from the Murdoch and other RW media. People must be very gullible to believe it all. If LNP do get in, it won’t take long for people to realise they’ve been duped. Just like last time. Half of the current crop are Newnan Leftovers! 4 year terms now too. (Should the worst happen, Steven Miles will be a formidable LOTO)
Thanks Jackie. I appreciate your wisdom. The Greens are being adolescent in Griffith. Don’t they believe in the United Front! It is delusional to make Labor the enemy and not the LNP.
Having being trained in educational psychology in my Dip.Sch.Couns course, I must say that Labor needs to use diversion therapy.to break the hegemony of the LNP’s Tough on Crime Rhetoric. I do not ride the streets of West End in fear. Noone has ever bothered me.
Is David Crisafulli wanting to be the new Bob Santamaria of Queensland with those silly Right Priorities for Queensland appear on every news bulletin.
This is vacuous politics at its lowest.
My best wishes to Dr Barbara O”Shea as Labor candidate for South Brisbane as a sequel to Bec Mac Macintoch’s efforts in the Gabba Ward last March. Barbara might actually win on LNP preferences over the Greens.
Labor is holding the line in its primary vote of 30 percent. Will the YouGov poll show any improvement when it is released?
Turn on the lights at Witton Barracks if your genuine. The place was still in darkness tonight and the LNP sold off our heritage was the excision of the Tignabruaich mansion at Witton Barracks at a fraction of its real value.
My great grandfather Patrick Ryan (1847-78) worked on the rail tracks there in 1878 and died in an accident returning home to Brassall after assignment to that area in Brisbane as an Irish immigrant. Surely I am qualified by family connections to raise hell about the follow and opportunism of the LNP’s Tough on Crime Rhetoric as communicated by the local candidate in Maiwar as noted in the Early Harvest of Postal Votes article.
The Queensland election result is far from determined.
Campaign furiously in Queensland: The LNP is already planning its furnishings in Ministerial Offices.
Should Labor lose government nationally, there is a great necessity for Labor state governments. 42 percent of all revenue for Queensland comes from Canberra through GST allocations and grants. Can David Crisafulli be trusted to stand up to Peter Dutton?
Yes, your right Denis. Campbell Newman and others said that the LNP would improve on Labor’s effort and looked at what happened later: Cost cutting and dismissals.
The Qld leaders debate between David Crisafulli and Steven Miles was on Channel Nine on Thursday evening : if you didn’t catch it, you haven’t missed anything.
Crisafulli still has this Adult Crime Adult Time thing going on – he actually said that if the youth crime rate didn’t come down during his first term, he would not stand as Premier for a second term – is that a promise or a threat ? He must have noticed, as I noted above, that according to the Queensland Police Service, the rate of child offenders dropped by 2% in 2023-24. Since 2012-13, rates have decreased by 18%, so it would be a real stuff up if youth crime actually did start to increase.
When Steven Miles first became Premier I observed that he needed some media training as he was clearly not demonstrating an ability to speak forcefully and to clearly communicate his policies or a vision for Queensland. It seems that they have done some work on him and he presented quite well in the debate.
The Qld fifty cent public transport initiative, whether by design or just good luck, has proved to be a major winner in Qld and certainly in the main centres where it has saved commuters a lot of money and put cash back into the weekly budget of many stressed families – naturally the LNP have adopted this policy.
Channel Nine did themselves no favours by having rather annoying moderators who seemed to want to be at the centre of things – in a debate of this sort we don’t need the moderators promoting themselves.
Overall, as I read it, Newscorp are ahead with a commanding lead and they insist that it’s the LNP’s turn.
North of the tropic of Capricorn you may well see Katter’s Australia Party pick up some seats – big hats are back in vogue !
One Notion seem (to me at least ) to have run out of steam.
The Greens are as expected using housing as their main issue for younger voters – saying that Labor are not doing enough on housing supply and rents – the more perceptive will have noted that the Greens are the ones actually blocking housing initiatives in the Senate.
On a lighter note, I was informed by an acquaintance that the LNP are gifting electronic devices (pagers and walkie talkies) to Labor voters – I don’t believe that for a moment !
Good to hear some alternative viewpoints on the upcoming election ,Denis.
Denis, thanks for an interesting article.
Terence, I don’t know how you sit through such things, but thanks for the update.
Steve
I do it for the nation and the state, but I keep the remote close at hand !
Terrence, I think the minerals council should concentrate on it own business and make sure its workplaces are safe. After yet another death and a serious injury at a Qld mine, its obvious they need to stay in their own lane. Their brand of politics is not looking good for Qld workers safety.
That’s interesting, Peter Dutton and the aspiring LNP hopeful in Queensland, David Crisafulli had a disagreement today, at a joint press conference, on one of the Dutton federal policy initiatives.
According to Dutton, Qld will get two of his nuclear power stations and according to Crisafulli that won’t be happening. Dutton, has dismissed the Queensland LNP’s rejection of his nuclear power plan as just a “difference of opinion” between friends.
Queensland LNP leader David Crisafulli reiterated his defiance of Dutton’s plan for two nuclear plants in Queensland. Crisafulli said he would oppose them if elected at the 26 October.
Mr Dutton has said that where necessary Commonwealth law could override state objections to achieve federal objectives.
Seems that this is a major rift between Queensland and the federal Liberal Party which they put down to a difference of opinions between friends.
Are there enough dimwits in Queensland to vote for jumping from the frying pan into the fire?