Spot on! Oz has the luxury of being able to send a message or make a point using your vote. Lose that at your peril. The minute it swings too far in one direction, you're stepping out over the abyss.

Was it P.J. O'Rourke who said "Giving governments power and money is like giving teenagers alcohol and the car keys."?

Well, who do you blame for "giving" the NLP so much power?

Perhaps I'll tell you.

The voting public gave that power, and they did so because they were sick to death of Labor lies and incompetence and a degradation of their living standards. Outrageous electricity bills which are going to get worse due to the Carbon Queen's tax and a health system in crisis. The credit rating or the State defecit probably contributed. Corruption and malfeasance may have have something to do with it as well. Did I mention State owned entities being sold off?

The voters will deal with LNP lies if and when the opportunity arises.

In the meantime, (three years), get used to it or migrate back to a Labor State.

It's a great thing that a government can be thrown out for ripping the tits off the cat. That's what democracy is about. The great tragedy about many so called democracies is that the chances of that ever happening there are slim to zero.

Now, don't you worry about that.........http://www.katzy.dsl.pipex.com/Smileys/chicken.gif

http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/__data/ass...es/Display.jpg
:}:}
IIRC there were t shirts, too...:eek:
And in the interests of bi-partisanism (if that's a word)...
http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/__data/ass...es/Display.jpg

Talking about 'Partisans', and 'Parachuting in', my impression was that the parachutist travelled light and had help on the ground. Imagine the smell and the baggage carried, all dead giveaways, if Andrew Fraser was 'parachuted in' as advocated by Beattie....

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How do you spell 'tumbrils' or is it 'tumbrels'? :8

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Yeah, you have a point.... i'm thinkin tho that the new boss chap's ambition fer 'higher' office will probably ensure a fairly tightly run ship and no funny bussiness...





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Campbell Newman's career indicates something like that. 13 years in the army, honours degree in civil engineering and retiring with the rank of major, MBA from UQ, ran Grainco with 600 employees, mayor of Brisbane from 2004, rated '5th best mayor in the world'. Finally, a successful Cunning Plan to become premier of Queensland. Impressive.

Just as impressive is the career of Michael Pucci, from Wisconsin, who after 20 years as a US Marine finds himself the Member for Logan in Queensland. :ok:

Meanwhile, La Gillard apparently sees no link between the rout in Queensland and her own future.

'I'll just keep doing what I've been doing,' she said today.

Let's see - lies, taxes, campaign of personal vilification... nope, no similarities there.

As Richo said, people just wanted to get rid of Bligh. They want to get rid of Gillard as violently as possible.

Once upon a time Frank "old Mate" cheap unsubstantiated personal attacks and finger pointing like that would be met in here by
dire predictions of "there goes the thread" from the likes of B**** or accusations of lefties name calling by s*******

So where is the anguished hand wringing today when a winger casts the first stone eh? Nowhere to be seen.

Hypocrisy writ large!

Instead we get another Liberal apparatchik piggy-backing on the reprehensible performance of his leader, the Right Honorable Tony Abbott in the final session of Federal Parliament before recess declaring that Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the leader of the House of Representatives, Anthony Albanese, were ''walking around with targets on their foreheads''.

Read more: Abbott Says Gillard And Albanese Have A Target On Their Heads

Australian politics have seldom sunk lower but there is no line that the Liberals will not cross.

And now unbelievably we have a Liberal right winger in Australia openly calling for violence to be visited upon our own elected Prime Minister to remove her.

This is heady stuff!!!!

I see, Zorro, so now, in this touchy-feely world that you seem to live in, nobody is allowed to use their mother language properly without fear of someone taking everything out of context and making wild accusations which have no basis in reality (or even the alternate reality inhabited by the Loony Lefties)..........


Yer clutching at the last straw left if that's the best you can come out with....

Should Beattie be appearing in the election aftermath?

I thought he handed Bligh the dead financial horse (part of his leadership legacy) when he did a runner a couple of elections ago.


ABC (who else?) ...Peter Beattie reflects on the Labor brand - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Hats off applause and admiration to the voters of Queensland.

Wow. Every time you think the Qld ALP have bottomed out they come up with another corker. :rolleyes:
Labor heavyweights shun by-election lifeline - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

So, the Bligh government gets hosed out with the biggest swing against a government in recent history.
Premier Anna Bligh hangs onto her seat by a small thread, only to chuck a darkie and resign the next day, forcing a by election.
Who's the candidate of choice? One of Anna's gal pals. :ugh:

This follows a factional punch up (to which someone thoughtfully invited the ABC and the Courier Mail :}) and a declaration from Labor Left that it's 'their' seat. You know what, comrades? It's looking more like the LNP's seat every day.

Particularly if you keep up with the 'rats fighting over a carcass' stuff and can't even pretend to be reasonably friendly with the other Tarago passengers. You can hear Anastacia now; 'Knock it off kids, I'm trying to drive! Stop throwing stuff or you're walking!' Productive and really conductive to getting Labor back on track in Qld. :hmm:

Truth be told it is more of a left seat (West End / H Hill are the land of the tofu latte :}) and parachuting Cameron in probably isn't going to appeal either (he's already lost one safe seat) but a Bligh staffer FFS? What are they smoking?

Here's a thought; how about finding some left wing pillar of the West End community who 1. Everyone likes, 2. Has a degree of integrity and 3. Has had nothing whatsoever to do with the Bligh government?

They'd be in with a chance then, but all they're demonstrating at the moment is the same ol' ALP thinking that got them frog marched out the door on Saturday.

P.S. I don't usually refer to MPs by their first names, but 'parachuting Dick in' didn't work very well. :eek: The buzzword of the day is not perfect...:oh:

Yep, it was the Voters of Queensland that did it - not the party policies or the party bosses or the promises - but the people who had had enough and called time. And with the big majority, if it goes to their heads, they will be toppled again in turn.
The will of the people can best be expressed by the Preferential Voting System, - not a First Past The Post system as in the U.S. where the people take forever to decide the Presidential candidate for a Two Party (effectively) government option, and divide the country right down the middle, which some in the big parties would like to see here.
Even Labor in Queensland now, as the Liberals in past defeats have done, would have a fall-back position if they are to avoid oblivion. There must be choice for democracy. Two parties, black and white, are not enough to keep the B*****S honest when in government. They need to be made to watch their backs too.
In our system people elect their party based on perceived ability. Selection by Party removes the choice from the people directly of the choice of leader, sometimes we are lucky, sometimes not, i.e. Bill McMahon, John Howard, but short of voting out the party we are stuck with them.
In this electorate, approximately 2 out of 5 voted for the LNP, nearly 2 out of 5 voted for the sitting Independant, and 1 out of 5 voted for the new KAP. More people voted against the LNP candidate than for her, but the result will go down to the wire because the system allows a second fall-back choice position to solve a majority. While it was an increased vote for the LNP, it was more a protest vote against the previous Labor Government than confidence the LNP wont get cocky in power. Lets face it, after a landslide win like that, in time it can only be downhill for the LNP if democracy in Queensland is to continue (as happened to Fraser federally in '75).
So lets keep the Preferential Voting system, it allows a fairer resolution of the people's choice than a stark Black or White, First-Past-The-Post, Take-It-Or-Leave-It party bosses and big business option.

Here lies a toppled God
His fall was not a small one
We did but build his pedestal
A narrow, but a tall one.

'Dune' Frank Herbert

Zorro

You appear to have overlooked Abbott's subsequent clarification, retraction and apology. You'll find it in Hansard. But don't expect the mainstream media to draw any attention to it.

Changing the subject, contributors here have been saying for several years that the personalised, attack dog style of political discourse would not work in the long run. Queensland seems to have proven the point.

When I have a few spare hours, I might trawl back through the old threads and see how our groups' respective predictions have panned out.

Before Saturday, some right wing pundits (loudly derided by the ABC and Fairfax) were predicting that the ALP would have 'only a cricket team' of seats in the new Queensland parliament. No one realised it would be an INDOOR cricket team.

If Anna's instant replay by-election doesn't go their way, (always a possibility), they won't even have that.

There are some posts on here that, in the aftermath of the rout and in advance of the Federal rout, appear wonderfully pointless and remind one of a screaming child that has just had their ice cream taken off them.

I wonder how Anna's constituency will react to having another promise broken and have to go to the polling booth again after such a short time?

Hear tell that there is now a chronic shortage of baseball bats in Queensland.:eek:

Warning; Aviation content.
Struth, even the Seneca1 I used to fly around in had more seats than Labor.:E At present anyway.