By Denis Bright  

Labor’s Alternative Policy Direction can be packaged as an event in progress as the Queensland election campaign moves into a crucial stage. The Queensland economy has too 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). The QIC’s real estate portfolio alone has built up $14.5 billion in assets under management since it was first 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.

The Murdoch press with the support of commercial eyewitness television news services like Sky News offers voters a litany of bad news stories with an emphasis on violent criminal activity. This focus on criminality is not about tax evasion, illegal drug networks or corporate corruption. There have been unfortunate instances of this type of criminal activity but overall crime rates in Queenslandas measured in official police statistics and are usually on parity with those turbulent days of the Premier Campbell Newman (2012-15).

Police statistics show rates of crime in three areas (robbery, sexual offences and homicide).

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.

David Crisafulli’s Little Blue Booklet initially gave no attention to the extent of mental illness, economic disadvantage and homelessness as underlying causes of criminality. Some of these scourges are related alcohol and drug abuse which has people prematurely aged at thirty years of age. The LNP has broadened its approach this week with a commitment to new mental health initiatives.

Here in Brisbane’s Inner West and Indooroopilly, I have mentioned before that the LNP chooses to leave places like Witton Barracks in darkness by the incompetence of the BCC’s preferred management company. Meanwhile brochures to outline David Crusafulli’s Touch on Crime Priorities are being delivered to local letterboxes in nearby homes and housing units.

Labor should be able to talk up its reformist and progressive agendas even at this stage in the current election campaign. 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. Thus far, the worst of Labor’s 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.

Here are some pragmatic transport initiatives for both metropolitan and regional areas.

In a game of electoral populism, voters are likely to respond positively to responsible reformist initiatives which consolidate the gains made by the introduction of 50 cent Translink fares on 5 August 2024. These transport initiatives would include:

• Commitment to multifunctional Transport Oriented Development projects (TODs) supported by government but largely funded through public private partnerships which are already operational at places like Montague Markets in West End Brisbane. At this location, the housing units above the commercial precincts are largely for the middle-end of the housing market. Opportunities for government support for social housing and improved public transport connections in outer suburban and regional towns and cities with an emphasis on integrating rail and bus connections (Image: Brisbane Development):

• The Goss Government in the 1990s commenced planning for high-speed tilt train services on coastal routes in Queensland and the luxury Spirit of the Outback sleeper train to Longreach with a bus connection to Winton. These initiatives are still operational although the Campbell Newman Government removed Motorail services for cars on the outback route. Thirty years later it is time to replace the Inlander and Westlander with units similar in style to the Prospector train in WA. Appropriate connecting buses should operate in the tourist season to some of Australia’s most iconic scenic spots along both the Savannah bus routes to Cairns and Darwin. Interstate destinations in NSW are within the reach of the Westlander operating as a higher speed inland service perhaps with an overnight break in Roma during the spring tourist season and a largely daylight service to Charleville at other for most of the year.

WA’s Prospector Service Covering 600 Kilometres in Seven Hours (TransWA)

• Within outer Brisbane and nearby regional centres in South-East Queensland there are public transport blackspots to locations like Wide Bay and Toowoomba which should be served by the expansion of the Translink bus zones. Some suburbs on the Brisbane-Ipswich corridor have no public transport.
• Investigation of a Mt. Isa to Darwin rail freight route with federal assistance to promote mineral and other exports through Darwin to avoid Reef transits. Locally, the federal LNP’s government owned Inland Rail Project lacks tangible connections to port facilities. The current terminus at Beaudesert is still one hundred kilometres from the Port of Brisbane.
• Finally, the Campbell Newman Government stopped the commercialization of the Queensland Rail’s Travel Service which should be collecting commissions for online and counter bookings for accommodation, tours and even interstate rail, bus and air travel.
• Replacing empty seats on long-distance rail services with concession fare rates for all classes of travel and booking links to connecting buses offered by existing and new commercial providers so that a state-ride public transport network re-emerges for the benefit of Queenslanders and local regional economies.

Labor’s agendas have never been very radical. However, communication about sustainable and just future policy directions must be reinvigorated. In juxtaposition, KAP and One Nation now operate on a unity ticket with a collective commitment to the priorities offered in That Little Blue Booklet which is being carried around by all LNP candidates at staged news presentations.

These policies are relics from a bygone and now discredited eras when Queensland conservatives were given too much of a mandate in landslide results over a century of infamy from the days of the Brisbane Tramway Strike of 1912 to the more recent temporary phase of Can-Do Politics (2012-15).