Queensland Futures: Can More Critical and Comprehensive News Reporting Assist in Delivering Political Miracles?
By Denis Bright
With the Queensland Government now in caretaker mode, time is running out for more communication about the priorities of a fourth term of government for Queensland Labor. Pre-polling voting commences on 14 October and continues for the last two weeks of the campaign. State Labor’s primary vote is still stuck on 30 percent in the most reliable polls.
There were no new major polling updates this morning on The Poll Bludger site. A global statewide polling result conceals the diversity of Labor’s support base from the 2020 state election of vast Labor regional heartlands, traditional inner-city seats with strong environmental agendas and outer metropolitan seats where cost-of-living politics is in the ascendency. In key marginal seats, the polling could be better or worse for Labor. Calling the result at this stage by the mainstream commercial media surely undermines democratic processes and makes a farce of the whole election campaign.
The recent allocation of LNP preferences to Labor over the Greens challenges the possibility of the Greens leap frogging from their two current state electorates of South Brisbane and Maiwar (formerly Indooroopilly) to adjacent seats like McConnel, Cooper and Moggill. There were similar possibilities in electorates to the east and south of South Brisbane and McConnel on both sides of the Brisbane River in LNP electorates like Everton, Clayfield and Chatsworth.
In Maiwar, the LNP is running a traditional campaign in support of David Crisafulli’s Tough on Crime Strategies.
Readers should also note the failure of the Brisbane City Council’s Management Company to turn on the existing floodlights at the Witton Barracks Community Centre.
The recent Freshwater Polling results show that the LNP’s campaign on the extent of community crime has hit the mark in shaping public opinion by swamping real debate on a fuller range of public issues (AFR 30 September 2024).
The Queensland Police are as tough on crime as any recent LNP Government.
On many indicators, Queensland crime rates are below those experienced under the LNP’s Campbell Newman Government.
The issue of comparative crime rates is complex. Numerous resources are available from Queensland Policy and from Treasury for further investigation by readers. Political points scoring on this issue is surely inappropriate when both sides of politics are united in their opposition to crime. There is a high degree of opportunism and sensationalism in the LNP’s approach which is ushering in the return of a bygone era in Queensland politics with its emphasis on Law and Order as a key policy priority.
Mainstream media outlets claim that Queensland is in the midst of a crime wave but in reality, there is a mixed picture of criminal activity as outlined by Police Minister Mark Ryan on 26 July 2024:
The latest crime statistics from the Queensland Police Service compare the financial year 2023/24 to financial year 2022/23.
The figures reveal a reduction in the rate of youth offences of 6.7%. In addition, the total number of unique youth offenders has reduced by 2% since last financial year and by 18% since 2012/13. The rate of unique youth offenders has reduced by 4% since last financial year and by a staggering 32% since 2012/13.
These annual statistics are underscored by a 9% statewide decrease in the number of unlawful entry offences committed by youth offenders and by a 9% statewide decrease in the number of unlawful use of a motor vehicle offences committed by youth offenders.
The statistics also show that the rate of all offences (inclusive of domestic violence flagged offences) by all offenders decreased by 0.1%.
Significantly, the rate of all offences (exclusive of domestic violence flagged offences) by all offenders decreased by 1.9%.
As a proportion of total offence rates, Domestic Violence offences continue to grow. For example, in relation to assault offences, in 2019-2020 Domestic Violence accounted for 24.4% of total assault offences, while in 2023-2024 it accounted for 56.9% of total assault offences.
It demonstrates the scale of domestic violence offending and how important it is that everyone in the community works together to stamp out this scourge on society.
The fact is that even one instance of offending is of concern, and that is why the government and police will never relent in targeting those who cause harm in the community.
Although law and order campaigns against criminal activity as proposed by David Crisafulli have overseas precedents, Queensland under an LNP government will take this state beyond the extreme measures trialled in some US states (Sourced from Gemini Google Bard):
- Georgia: While the general age of criminal responsibility is 13, Georgia has provisions that allow children as young as 12 to be tried as adults for certain serious offenses.
- North Carolina: In North Carolina, children aged 13 and older can be tried as adults for certain felony offenses, including murder and rape.
- Texas: Texas allows 10-year-olds to be tried as adults in rare cases.
Tough on Crime Strategies in Texas itself coexist with high rates of crime by Queensland standards. But even in Texas, crime rates vary considerably (SafeHome Org: 15 August 2024). Crime deterrents across Texas have not contained crime rates in the troubled cities along the Gulf Coastline from the outskirts of Houston and Galveston to Corpus Christi and onto the Mexican Border.
High crime rates in Texas coexist with the reintroduction of the death penalty as a result of local far-right support for capital punishment with approval from US Supreme Court’s Gregg v Georgia Ruling in 1976. The sometimes-macabre details on Texan prison systems are available online for interested readers.
The Appeal (3 February 2024) notes the widespread return of Tough on Crime Rhetoric in US Politics:
According to a Gallup poll released in November, for the first time in 20 years, the majority of Americans think the U.S. is “not tough enough” on crime. In a marked shift from the last time Gallup asked this question, 58 percent of respondents said they believe the criminal-legal system is too soft, up from 41 percent in 2020.
This change in public opinion coincides with growing fears about – allegedly – rising crime in the United States. In the 2022 midterms, most voters ranked violent crime among their top issues. And in late 2020, a Gallup poll found that perceptions of increased crime reached their highest levels since 1993.
A few years earlier, “tough on crime” policies seemed passé. In major cities, voters elected pro-reform prosecutors who ran on promises to reduce the use of cash bail and end prosecutions of low-level misdemeanours.
Deep-red states like Oklahoma and Louisiana enacted sweeping criminal justice reform legislation in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Since 2020, however, punitive approaches to public safety have come back in style. Progressive prosecutors have left office in jurisdictions like San Francisco, Orlando, and St. Louis, ousted by voters and hostile state officials. Numerous states have enacted harsh new penalties for drug crimes and retail theft. Landmark victories for the reform movement, such as New York’s 2019 bail reform legislation, have been rolled back by the same legislators who initially passed them.
On the surface, this shift towards “tough on crime” policies and rhetoric may appear to be a natural response to voters’ growing concerns about public safety. But this simplistic narrative misses a more nuanced understanding of Americans’ complex and often contradictory attitudes toward the criminal-legal system. Not only are perceptions of crime out of whack with reality, but public opinion polls show that most voters still support efforts to reduce incarceration, increase police accountability, and invest in alternative approaches to public safety.
Saturating voters with warning about crime and nasty cards that blame Labor and the Greens for all cost-of-living problems from rents to housing prices and insurance bills is a real Machiavellian ploy to divert attention away from the real achievements of the Labor Government in Queensland over the past three terms since 2015. David Crisafulli’s Tough on Crime Rhetoric is short on details about the underlying causes of crime including the widening income divide and the exploitation of social alienation by social media networks.
In contrast, the current Social Media Summit has the imprimatur of the Albanese Government as well as the governments of NSW and SA. Queensland is not involved as our government is in caretaker mode:
The summit will bring together experts, policymakers, academics, young people, and community voices to discuss the positive and negative impacts of social media on people’s lives and how government can best support digital wellbeing.
The summit will help inform the design and delivery of a range of policies, programs and resources to address the challenges posed by social media.
Key focus areas of the Social Media Summit will be:
• Impacts of social media on children and young people’s wellbeing
• Online safety
• Social media’s role in disinformation and misinformation
• Addressing online hate and extremism
• How social media is changing the way government delivers servicesLive stream
Keynote addresses and major panel discussions from day one of the summit in Sydney will be live streamed via this webpage from 9:30am – 5pm AEDT on Thursday, 10 October.
The strength of the Queensland economy is a good defence against the descent into criminality in the LNP’s Tough on Crime Rhetoric. In management of the economy, Labor’s record is exceptionally good.
The Queensland economy has moved from Potential Dire Straits with the injection of additional revenue from mineral royalties, stable support from the Albanese Government and windfall profits through the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) (https://www.qic.com/). The QIC’s real estate portfolio alone has built up $14.5 billion in assets under management since it was established under the Goss Labor Government in the 1990s (From the latest Annual Report):
“QIC has delivered a pre-tax profit of $127.1 million for 2022-23 against a target of $110.0 million. Total revenue for 2022-23 increased by $37.9 million to $654.5 million compared to 2021- 22, primarily due to increased investment management fees and property asset level service revenue.”
Eyewitness news services bring a measure of excitement into suburban and regional households with their coverage of specific criminal events which do not extend to the big overall picture of trends in criminal activity. The coverage always avoids emphasis on growing levels of corporate criminal corruption from tax evasion to support for highly prevalent illegal drug distribution or even anomalies in the management of nursing homes for the elderly which have been well covered in recent 7.30 Report segments. It is about scaring the Mamas and Papas.
Data transmitted by Metropole Property Strategists should allay these concerns. Many Brisbane suburbs are the safest locations in comparison to interstate metropolitan areas.
Every percentage point gain in Labor’s primary vote will save sitting members in the most marginal seats in both outer metropolitan and regional districts. Labor’s initially bad polling results have stabilized. Of course, I cannot guarantee that this will continue into the 30+ percent range. It is a wait and see game for the days ahead.
Twenty of Labor’s fifty-one current seats in a state parliament of ninety-three members are in the coastal zones from the Premier’s own electorate of Murrumba to the tip of Cape York in the Cook electorate.
Health Minister Shannon Fentiman made a commitment to extend Labor’s unfinished business in public health on today’s campaign trail. This repeats similar commitments about Labor’s unfinished policy agenda in earlier press statements (26 September 2024):
“Ensuring our hospitals are ready to serve their local communities now, and into the future is a priority for the Miles Government.
“That’s why we have invested over $14 billion in the Queensland Health Big build, to cater for this growth.
“These projects also mean our hardworking frontline nurses and doctors will be equipped with the support and resources they need to deliver world-class healthcare and improve the flow of patients through hospitals.
“It’s thanks to our progressive coal royalties tax that we are able to continue to invest in the services that matter most to Queenslanders.
“The LNP will not deliver a single new hospital bed for Queensland.
“And if their track record of savagely sacking 4,400 health workers is anything to go by, Queenslanders cannot trust a thing they say.
“Only Labor is doing what matters to build the facilities needed to ensure Queenslander’s can access worldclass healthcare close to home.
“Meanwhile, David Crisafulli, Ros Bates, and the LNP refuse to be upfront with Queenslanders about their plan for our health system. Last time they were in Government, they sacked 4,400 health workers and slashed $1.6 billion from the health budget.”
The strength of the Queensland economy is supported by efforts of the QIC which has sold its equity in the traffic management systems and car park at CampusParc at Ohio University in Columbus at twice the value of its purchase price for close to one billion dollars (Bloomberg Media 7 March 2024).
Ohio State University has more to offer Queenslanders than windfall profits on its parking and traffic management facilities. Within walking distance of CampusParc is the University’s iconic School of Communication where Professor Gerald Kosicki, Associate Professor Nicole Kraft and others have pioneered research over the years on the need for critical analysis from all academic perspectives on the opportunistic use of political spin of the style.
Students at the School of Communication at Ohio are trained to report on criminal activity as a social problem which can be exacerbated by journalistic repetition of that Tough on Crime Rhetoric (From the School of Communication 21 November 2022). Ohio State’s School of Communication partnered with the Ohio State University Police Department to conduct a mock crime scene, simulating breaking news.
“When news breaks, you don’t want that to be the first time you are covering breaking news,” said Nicole Kraft, associate professor – clinical. “We give them this opportunity to do it, to make mistakes, to be able to get evaluations on how they did and be able to build up the kind of muscle that they’re gonna need to do this in the field someday.”
Students reporting on the scene must think up, write and ask questions all at once. This on-the-spot interviewing challenges for young reporters, helping better prepare them for the real world.
“I think that feeling, that adrenaline rushing through my body was like something I’ve never felt before, so that was pretty exciting,” Jayla Van Horn, a third-year journalism student, said.
In contrast to this innovative training of journalism students at Ohio State, even Criminal Justice Web Sites in the USA can misuse application of their own Tough on Crime Rhetoric. Readers might take a look at the Death Row Information from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (Death Row Information (texas.gov) with its gruesome last statements from executed felons and even media liaisons with mainstream news reporting networks about forthcoming executions. There have been also six hundred executions in Texas by lethal injection since 1982. This emphasis on punishment has not contained the crime waves in urban centres along the Gulf Coast between the outskirts of Houston and nearby Galveston to Corpus Christi and the Mexican border. Media coverage of executions in Texas is a feature of mainstream news coverage:
In contrast to the grim reporting from Texas, last minute campaigning worked in the German State of Brandenburg to get the Social Democrats back into government on 24 September 2024 with a commitment to improved living standards and community services.
As in France on 7 July, a United Front was forged between the Social Democrats, the Greens and a newly formed Left Populist Party known locally as the Reason and Justice Party (BSW).
Labor’s agenda for should not be swamped by Tough on Crime rhetoric when these policies have bipartisan support. Both major parties are Tough on Crime but this commitment should not be at the expense of other policy agendas.
In every policy area, there are new opportunities for progressive change that combines old Labor traditions with new directions in affordable and sustainable living.
Imagine the opportunities for Queensland if Downer Rail at Maryborough became a new hub for hydrogen powered regional trains (Image: One H2 24 February 2024):
As the world looks for ways to reduce the impact of greenhouse gasses, the rise of hydrogen-powered trains is gaining momentum. The U.S., China, and Europe are driving this new technology, shaping the future of rail transportation.In the United States, the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA) just got its first hydrogen-powered trainset from Swiss-based Stadler. The two-car train will run on the 9-mile “Arrow” rail line in California and is set to go into service in 2024 after undergoing testing in Europe. California has a goal of making all its passenger trains 100% emissions-free by 2035, and this new train aligns with that mission.
China’s CRRC Changchun Railway Company and Chengdu Rail Transit have produced the country’s first hydrogen passenger train, specifically made for city environments. It is said to be the world’s fastest hydrogen-powered train to date, capable of reaching 100 mph (160 km/h). This train is part of China’s plan to grow its hydrogen energy sector and have 50,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the road by 2025.
Political miracles can happen. In the Brandenburg State election, good campaigning combined with an awareness of the consequences of the alternatives offered by far-right politicians brought a four percent increase in the local votes for the Social Democrats in the last week of the campaign.
From Potsdam in Brandenburg to Palardo, Pittsworth, Petrie and Piabla on the current Queensland campaign, commitment to the Light on the Hill will triumph over temporary phases of far-right opportunism. Better sooner than after another thirty-two-year phase of guided democracy and political corruption in the worst of the decades between 1957 and 1989.
For your interest, a short juxtaposition doco:
A Country Road: The Nationals: Joh Bjelke-Petersen
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.
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Return to home pageSurely voters will put their self-interest first and choose the Light on the Hill about beter living standards and commi=unities
Thanks for an interesting article Denis.
Miracles can happen in politics. Sometimes the far-right goes too far and ahead of public opinion and this causes a back-lash
Traveling to Parliament House on a 50 cent bus fare ? History in the making ?
Back to the Joh era for the Deep North? David Crisafulli will always act in the old National Party traditions. Watch out Queenslanders! Activists will soon be marching on Coolangatta from the safety of NSW against some far-right populist policies as in the Joh era. The Q Police are already tough on crime. But they can also waste their resources searching bags on cues from personal appearances. As in Galveston, Texas, there are lots of tensions in modern society which need to be addressed over law and order strategies.
Best wishes to Queensland Labor on its 50 cent bus trip to a fourth term in government
Good combination of local and overseas events, Denis. Maybe the structural problems are similar as you always say.
Good critical reporting: Queensland was once under martial law during the convict era 1827-42 as part of NSW prior to 1859 under the Command of Captain Patrick Logan (1791-1830). Logan had been hated by the convicts because of his strict discipline and program of punishments. Queensland has a long history of being Tough on Crime: “Moreton Bay” is an Australian folk ballad. It tells of the hardship a convict experienced at penal settlements around Australia, in particular, the penal colony at Moreton Bay, Queensland, which was established to house convicts who had reoffended in settlements in New South Wales.
One Sunday morning as I went walking, by the Brisbane’s waters I chanced to stray,
I heard a convict his fate bewailing, as on the sunny river bank he lay;
I am a native of Erin’s island but banished now to the fatal shore,
They tore me from my aged parents and from the maiden I do adore.
I’ve been a prisoner at Port Macquarie, Norfolk Island and Emu Plains,
At Castle Hill and cursed Toongabbie, at all those settlements I’ve worked in chains;
But of all those places of condemnation, in each penal station of New South Wales,
To Moreton Bay I’ve found no equal: excessive tyranny there each day prevails.
For three long years I was beastly treated, heavy irons on my legs I wore,
My back from flogging it was lacerated, and often painted with crimson gore,
And many a lad from downright starvation lies mouldering humbly beneath the clay,
Where Captain Logan he had us mangled on his triangles at Moreton Bay.
Like the Egyptians and ancient Hebrews, we were oppressed under Logan’s yoke,
Till a native black who lay in ambush did give our tyrant his mortal stroke.
Fellow prisoners, be exhilarated, that all such monsters such a death may find!
And when from bondage we are liberated, our former sufferings shall fade from mind.
Tough on Crime Strategies coexist with a brutal society. Let’s take Galveston, Texas: Not quite like that old nostalgic song (Police Stats):
Galveston, oh Galveston
I still hear your sea winds blowin’
I still see her dark eyes glowin’
She was twenty-one
When I left Galveston
I still see her standing by the water
Standing there lookin’ out to sea
And is she waiting there for me?
On the beach where we used to run
Specifically, there were 248 violent crimes reported in Galveston, equivalent to 469 per 100,000 residents, which is higher than the national average by 26.7%. Additionally, Galveston recorded 1548 property crimes, amounting to 2925 per 100,000 people, higher than the national average by 49.7%.
Although the murder rates in America have decreased steadily since 1990, over the last few years there has been an uptick. Galveston has one of the highest murder rates in the country when compared to all other cities that reported crime in the U.S. There were a total of 6 murders in Galveston, which is 11 murders per 100,000 people.
great words, Dennis, but few labor deeds reach the voters and too many have forgotten the ravages of campbell newman so without a huge controversy on oct 24 labor will be lucky to have a cricket team
Well the trends in Opinion Polls in Brandenburg moved 4 percent towards the Social Democrats in the last week. Never give up wam. Brandenburg sent the far-right into Opposition.
Rob Katter from KAP is getting the LNP into real political trouble, wam. Rob does not represent community opinion in Traegar on the private members bill that he is proposing. It might take us into the last week of the campaign before this shows up in polling. That might be the huge controversy that you mentioned.
Thanks for the hope, Dennis,
It would be great if Katter’s bill kills.
Terrible News from Ben Smee in the Guardian about the extent of corporate support for the LNP in Queensland (23 September 2024)
Thanks for the interesting read.
I live in Katter country with Bob holding the federal seat of Kennedy and Shane Knuth holding the state seat of Hill for KAP.
I have scanned the KAP website for information and rationale behind their move to once again criminalise abortion under the Qld Criminal Code Act 1899 – it was only de-criminalised by Labor in 2018 – which Crisafulli and his gang voted against.
Nothing on the website, nothing in their policy platform – in fact they don’t seem to have any policies beyond culling crocodiles.
I sent them an email requesting information on their plans for Women’s Health as they call it but no response.
Katters Party are LNP aligned hence Crisafulli being very coy about changes to Womens’ Health choices : should he get into office he will need support from the former National party KAP.
Women in Queensland please don’t let your healthcare choices be decided by a group of boofy politicians in big hats !
From Ben Smee in the Guardian:
The LNP’s signature crime policy – “adult time for adult crime” – promises to sentence children as adults. At the same time, analysis shows that up to 96% of young people who go into the youth detention system reoffend.
If the goal of youth detention is to rehabilitate – to prevent reoffending – then the system failure rate is astounding. Any other government system that performs that poorly would be shut down. The LNP’s policies – and, to be fair, Labor’s – just feed more children into that broken system.
Shades of Galveston Policing
The LNP dreads “Critical and Comprehensive News Reporting”. They only have adoring eyes and spread cheeks for Rupert.
A lyric about Galveston. Even with the Death Penalty the Gulf Coast of Texas is a crime haven. Being tough on crime can inflame social tensions
and make disadvantaged people more desperate. Trump supporters blame the problems on immigrants from desperate Central American countries.
My tribute to Galveston and victims on death rows across Texas. Forty percent of those executed in 2023-24 were black.
image.png
Though darkness surrounds me, a flicker of hope remains, a beacon to guide me through the pain
On death row in Texas
Perhaps a progressive lawyer
Won’t be so Tough on Crime
From The Texas Tribune 17 September 2024: Next Execution in Huntsville Unit in Texas is scheduled for 17 October:
“One month out from Robert Roberson’s execution, 86 lawmakers signed a letter pressing the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend clemency, which would be up to Gov. Greg Abbott to grant. The board can take up until two days before the execution, which is slated for Oct. 17, to make its recommendation.
The lawmakers, who comprise just under a supermajority of the Texas House, cited “voluminous new scientific evidence” that they and Roberson’s attorneys argued demonstrates his innocence and explains that the cause of his daughter’s death was natural and accidental.
“It should shock all Texans that we are barreling towards an execution in the face of this new evidence,” the lawmakers wrote to the board. “Other states look to Texas as a leader for both enforcing the rule of law and addressing wrongful convictions. We now look to you to prevent our state from tarnishing that reputation by allowing this execution to proceed.” ”
Tough on Crime is a wild political agenda which is practised in Texas today and in Brisbane’s yester-year under Commander Patrick Logan
Readers could ask which advertising agency is running the state LNP’s Tough on Crime Campaign in Queensland. This is the key filter in the LNP’s advertising offensive to defeat a highly competent Labor Government which has taken Queenslanders out of that Campbell Newman era since 2015.
Aren’t all mainstream political parties opposed to criminality?
Queensland’s crime statistics and rates of crime are available online and by macro-police regions: https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/queensland-crime-statistics/
On many indicator, crime rates have improved since 2015.
Is the BCC’s management company in Whitebox at the Witten Barracks Community Centre at Indooroopilly exempt from commitments made in the Right Priorities Booklet from the Queensland LNP when its keeps the flood lights switched off at night there?
Queensland Rail keeps its station facilities at Indooroopilly well lit at night. Its floodlights do not extend into the adjacent BCC Park and the Witton Barracks Community Centre which are under the control of the LNP’s BCC.
The current Q Government is committed to support for the victims of domestic violence. This problem is embedded in social structures and may have increased with all that time spent at home and working from home since the COVID-19 crisis: What more can a government do?
Emergency help or support
This website discusses domestic and family violence and coercive control.
Call Triple Zero (000) and ask for Police if you are in a dangerous or life-threatening situation.
If you don’t want to speak to the police you can also call DV Connect on 1800 811 811 or 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week).
Find other support options (https://www.qld.gov.au/community/getting-support-health-social-issue/support-victims-abuse/need-to-know)
)
Tough on crime strategies have not worked in Texas despite the use of the death penalty by lethal injection. https://www.josephruizlaw.com/blog/galveston-tx-crime-rate/
From Time Magazine 13 October 2024: Robert Roberson is set to be executed by the State of Texas on Thursday, Oct. 17, amid outcry from some lawmakers and advocates who argue that he is innocent. https://time.com/7086477/robert-roberson-execution-date-texas-appeals/
As I mentioned above, I live in the Queensland state seat of HILL held by KAP – a lady mentioned to me yesterday that our health services in the local area were neglected, we don’t have access to MRI services and those receiving chemotherapy have to travel to Cairns which makes for an exhausting day trip for the patient. I pointed out that if we continue to vote KAP then we are not going to be at the table when these issues need to be discussed. Having said that, I have no doubt that we in this electorate will again elect the KAP candidate : go figure !
The LNP could well slide into office on 26th October based on a ‘vibe’ : the vibe is the same one that the CLP used successfully in the NT, it had racist undertones and it worked – “Youth Crime is the vibe” even though youth crime in Queensland has been reducing in recent years.
Labor has been a steady but not spectacular government in Queensland but they are up against the Newscorp, SKY Regional juggernaut plus the nonsensical advertising blitz run by the Minerals Council to have coal royalties reduced (which inevitably will hit the Qld budget if the LNP get into office) – again, go figure.
The fifty cent public transport fares was initially rubbished by the LNP and then they hopped on board : it is good policy. The (opt-in) free school lunches has been applauded by those concerned with children’s health services but rubbished by the LNP – both of these initiatives go straight to those who most need assistance AND if you are really worried about youth crime surely there is an incentive to get kids off the streets and into school if they know they will get a decent lunch.
We need to worry about the proposed 2032 Brisbane Olympics whether you support them being held in Brisbane or not, we have made a commitment BUT the LNP are getting a lot of resistance from the bush to pull out………watch this space !
But, in the meantime we have KAP with four state seats saying they will push their LNP mates (KAP are ex National Party blokes) to revisit abortion laws and hopefully recriminalize them ; ask yourself, why do boofy blokes in big hats want to control women’s reproductive health ?
The style of news reporting from Channel 13 in Houston, Texas where many leaders also like to go around in cowboy hats. In Tough on Crime US States, there are lots of blind spots in sensational news reporting: Tune into the latest online News Bulletin:https://abc13.com/tag/ktrk-newscasts/.
And live from Death Row in Texas: https://abc13.com/robert-roberson-shaken-baby-syndrome-innocence-project-death-penalty/15407349/
Thanks Terence Mills for your prompts from the electorate of Hill in North Queensland.
This was once a solid Labor territory in Mourilyan and Tablelands which held out against Bjelke-Petersen politics until the great wide-out of the 1974 election.
The Hill the state election of 2020 in a good year for Labor: After preferences: KAP 72.5 percent (+2.8 percent): Labor 27.5 percent
Terence, I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall when Bob Katter heard about Robbie on abortion.
Bob had a good instinct for political survival, and this could cost them dearly.
Has Bob made any comments on it?
Terence, I have a friend who lives not too far from where you are… a little further south, Millaa Millaa; he’s been there for many years. He’s a greenie, a conservationist, lives off grid in relatively intact rainforest, and we’ve had several discussions on the politics of FNQ, the red-necked ethos of far north Queenslanders and their obduracy, insularity, lack of vision, self-centred focus on doing things their way and resistance to better practice in politics, land management, social welfare and so on. Change for the better, it seems, happens very slowly if at all, in that red-neck of the woods.
And, speaking of red-necks, I was with this friend around this time last year and we pulled in to a coffee stop near Atherton, while inside and waiting to order this boofy old bloke came over to us and said something along the lines to my mate of ‘Hi, remember me, I used to be Sergeant X of the Atherton police, I’m retired now. Why don’t you come over and have a beer sometime, it’d be great to catch up and get to know each other.’
My friend was rattled by this guy’s attitude. He (my friend) had much earlier been a hippy living at Cedar Bay… after the 1976 raid but not that much later, and he was deeply cynical about police motives and behaviour and to be now confronted by this retired cop who appeared to be implying that he wanted this old ex-hippy to become a friend was just plain weird & unsettling, particularly given my friend’s knowledge of this ex-cop’s behaviour over the years of monstering greenies and the alternative community.
Steve Davis
One thing we have to acknowledge about the politicians we elect in the Far North : we don’t expect that they will achieve much and rarely do they disappoint us.
Bob is fixated on crocodile culling and Robbie on women’s reproductive healthcare.
As regards the abortion Bill being pushed by Robbie, I made some enquiries and found that nobody had actually read the draft Bill. So I asked for a copy, as you do.
The Bill deals only with late term abortions (over 22 weeks) and requires that a live birth in these circumstances should be given appropriate medical care and attention. This is the Amendment Bill, which in many respects follows the Bill that has now failed in the South Australian parliament :
https://documents.parliament.qld.gov.au/tp/2024/5724T410-E6D3.pdf
Crisafulli, the LNP hopeful, has said that he would strenuously oppose this amendment but, on first glance, I can’t see why. Maybe Mr Crisafulli and the LNP haven’t read the legislation as seems to be the case with the ABC.
Canguro, Millaa Millaa, beautiful country on the Great Divide with a very high annual rainfall, great dairying country.
Blending the old and the new in public policies on issues relating to living standards and environmental issues is so important. Traditional Labor was quite interventionist in public policies on economics and infrastructure in NQ with projects like the Tinaroo Dam, hydro-electricity schemes and the Mareeba-Dimbulah Irrigation Projects. Somehow all this goodwill in NQ has been lost to the far-right in the LNP and other parties.
At the height of the war with Japan in 1943, the LNP came third in Curtin’s wartime election after Labor and the Communist Party on 34 percent of the vote in Herbert and a CPA State Labor member in Bowen.
Proactive public transport policies, tourist initiatives and a railway to the Port of Darwin to assist NWQ are all important in returning the North to Labor.
Labor can promise to replace the Inlander and Westlander with higher speed rail cars and refurbish comfortable old carriages to serve on a Motorail train to Townsville in association with the Spirit of the Outback which runs through Rockhampton.
The SEQ Brisbane focused Translink zone should be expanded initially with bus services to Toowoomba, Maryborough and Bundaberg from existing rail services. Gympie North Station is a white-elephant without bus services to Rainbow Beach, Maryborough and Hervey Bay to offer affordable fares to Brisbane.
From CNN: The scheduled execution of Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson for the murder of his 2-year-old daughter has been halted after the Texas Supreme Court issued a partial stay late Thursday night, according to court documents.
The 11th-hour stay came just over an hour before Roberson’s death warrant was set to expire and followed a remarkable exchange of legal maneuvers as the state and Roberson’s advocates fought over his fate.
The Supreme Court’s decision came swiftly after a splintered Texas Court of Criminal Appeals struck down a lower court’s order halting his execution in a late-night ruling earlier Thursday.
Criticism from within the ranks of the LNP relating to the Tough on Crime Jingle (ABC News)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-16/jann-stuckey-questions-lnp-youth-crime-policy-qld-election/104449352
LNP state policies relating to Tough on Crime were already outdated a decade ago (NPR 19 May 2010): For more than 20 years, state legislatures have come down increasingly hard on criminal minors, insisting that they do “adult time for adult crimes.” But some states are starting to rethink that approach.
Crime prevention trumps punishment strategies which hit racial minorities and the disadvantaged as well as increasing social tensions.
The Queensland election is on a knife’s edge and LNP leader, David Crisafulli is prepared to say anything or promise anything to win office on 26 October.
The one thing that he has squibbed at so far is to acknowledge that he will reduce Royalties on coal miners at a time when Queensland TV viewers are being assaulted on a nightly basis with Qld Resources Council advertisements telling us that we’ll all be rooned if Royalties are not reduced – curiously this at a time when coal exports are surging and anyone with a pulse can get a job in a coalmine.
Qld Resources Council advertisement : https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=288194817706129
Crisafulli has not so far made the desperate concession that Tony Abbott made when he reportedly said he would do anything to win government, except sell his arse. Crisafulli still has a week to make up his mind !