Mike O’Connor looks back at the woeful year that was 2022

OPINION: From ScoMo to rain bombs, white elephants to hiking bans, Mike O’Connor looks back at the woeful year that was – with little hope for 2023.

Clockwise from top left, Scott Morrison, Mt Warning, Steven Miles and Jacinta Price

And so this was the year that was, and if you missed some of its more salient moments, then here, as chronicled by this column, is 2022 in review.

January

It is revealed that the mortality rate for children known to Child Safety is almost twice the Queensland child mortality rate, and the mortality rate for children known to Child Safety is four or more times the rate for all children in Queensland for fatal assault and neglect, drowning, suicide and other non-intentional injury.

February

To gain the support of left-wing luvvies, then prime minister Morrison announced an increase in the ABC’s budget, despite the corporation’s steadfast resistance to editorial accountability, its blatant Green-Left agenda and profligate spending on self-promotion and lawyers.

March

Brisbane’s prosaically titled “rain bomb” and the catastrophic flooding which ensued prompted this observation: “The attitude is to tell us that we’re Queenslanders and that we will rise above it, a cry beloved by politicians because it tends to obscure the obvious, which is that we shouldn’t have to rise above it again and again and again.”

April

As the state government wondered what to do with its Wellcamp white elephant facility, I offered a suggestion. “We could, perhaps, turn it into a theme park called Labor Land, replete with larger-than-life models of our political heroes mouthing some of their more memorable pronouncements.

“We could have Deputy Premier Steven Miles claiming he stuttered when using the C-word to describe Scott Morrison and the Premier could mouth ‘Queensland hospitals are for Queenslanders’.”

May

As the federal election campaign ground on, I wrote that “what ScoMo and Albo both agree on is that all we have to do is vote them in and she’ll be right, mate. No tax increases, just more government spending on health, aged care, education and the NDIS and a good time will be had by all. And from where, you might wonder, will the money come?”

June

It was George Bush who, when campaigning for the US presidency, announced: “Read my lips: no new taxes.” He won the election and less than a year later raised taxes leading television host David Letterman to observe that his assurance to the American people should be changed to: “Read my lips: I was lying.”

State Treasurer Cameron Dick announced no new taxes and in the finest traditions of President Bush, promptly imposed new taxes.

July

Queensland Auditor-General Brendan Worrall cast an eye over the membership of the boards of four state government departments and found that only 36.3 per cent of members had completed any specific courses on board governance and that only one department actually checked the qualifications that candidates claimed to have.

August

Indigenous Senator Jacinta Price is lambasted for daring to oppose the Voice. Price left her partner after he bashed her with a lamp. Her aunt and nephew were both murdered.

“I think I got to a point where I went, ‘I’ve had enough of this’,” she said.

She wrote in The Australian: “To enshrine a Voice to parliament is to enshrine the notion Aboriginal Australia will forever be marginalised and will forever need special measures pertaining to our race.”

September

Granny flats are announced as a solution to the state housing shortage. How many of these flats are there? Nobody knows. Are people aware that if they do have one and rent it there will be capital gains tax and income tax implications, that under new rental laws you can’t refuse pets, and that getting rid of an undesirable tenant will be extremely difficult? Probably not.

October

Essendon Football Club thought Andrew Thorburn was the right person to be its chief executive, but then it didn’t because of his church’s views on homosexuality.

According to the Australian National Imams Council, “from the Islamic standpoint, homosexuality is a forbidden action; a major sin and anyone who partakes in it is considered a disobedient servant to Allah that will acquire his displeasure and disapproval”.

Did this mean that all those who have applauded the actions of the Essendon Football Club regard Muslims as unsuitable to hold responsible office?

November

Hikers are banned from climbing world heritage-listed Mount Warning by the self-named Indigenous Wollumbin Consultative Group. Indigenous leader Fiona Noble says “false naming and false stories” are being used to ban access to the region’s natural attractions.

Let’s pass on December and look to 2023. The French say that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Let’s hope not.