Peter Gleeson: It’s war between Deb Frecklington and Scott Morrison and Campbell Newman
The Canberra disease of internal bickering among our conservative leaders has spread to Queensland, when they should be targeting Labor’s failures, writes Peter Gleeson.
Opinion
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IT SEEMS the Canberra disease of internal bickering among our conservative leaders has spread to Queensland.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and former LNP premier Campbell Newman are livid with Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington, and it’s starting to get ugly.
Campbell Newman picks Twitter fight with LNP leader Deb Frecklington
Newman clarifies criticism of Deb Frecklington
After a story in yesterday’s Courier-Mail where Frecklington bluntly asked the PM to back a $7 billion plan to cut electricity prices in Queensland, former LNP premier Campbell Newman was quick to lambaste her.
He tweeted: “How about instead @debfrecklington you hold the state ALP to account for their poor financial management. That is cheap politics.’’
When asked to explain his comments, Newman said: “If Frecklington and the LNP want to win the next election, they need to clearly articulate what they’ll do for Queensland. This sort of stuff is crazy. It won’t win them votes.’’
Frecklington said if the PM “wants to get himself back in the game and win Queensland, this is one policy that will actually make a real difference’’.
It is understood Morrison was seething after getting the letter.
The antipathy between Newman and Frecklington is not new.
Many in the Liberal Party remain unhappy at Newman’s style as premier, which ultimately cost them victory in 2015. But the division has become symbolic of the conservative parties in this country. Not content with the federal parliamentary wing of the Liberal Party tearing itself apart, we now have a big rift in Queensland. Of course, the winner is the Labor Party, despite its litany of own goals.
Health remains a basket case with the Lady Cilento hospital name change an embarrassment. The closure of maternity wards in regional communities remains a terrible indictment on healthcare provision. The trains fiasco is extraordinary – they don’t run on time and the bungle over the New Generation Rollingstock project is like something out of a Monty Python skit. What toilets? Oh, those toilets.
Now we have a fire inquiry and serious questions being raised about vegetation management laws and whether they played a role in the escalation of the Bundaberg fires.
Take farmer David Marland. He was on the frontline of the fires trying desperately to save his grazing property. After the fires had ripped through his property, he said: “If we had been allowed to burn when we are supposed to ... you wouldn’t have the devastating fires we had.’’ Marland applied in December last year to build firebreaks. He is still waiting for a response.
The Government states a fire-management line is only permitted to “a maximum width of 10m’’. This arbitrary and bureaucratic restriction is totally inadequate. This latest fire jumped the entire width of the Bruce Highway.
There is also the Palaszczuk Government’s unhealthy relationship with the unions, crystallised by the appointment of QTU vice-president Sam Pidgeon to a $350,000 a year job with the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission, despite never prosecuting a case there in her life.
You’ve got Treasurer Jackie Trad who won’t even mention the word debt in her speeches. Queensland’s debt is now higher than the combined debt of NSW and Victoria.
Yet the State Opposition can’t seem to get any traction and this latest infighting with Canberra exemplifies why.
TATTS PLAYS A ROLE AS MEN’S REFUGE
PATRICE McKay believes men’s clubs play a positive role in society. She says men need their own space and a club is the perfect environment to do that.
McKay is the wife of a Tattersall’s Club member and doesn’t support Tatts opening its membership to women. “I am a member of a women- only club and I just think it’s appropriate that men have a refuge for themselves,’’ she says. “It’s not that women can’t be a part of the club. There are partner nights and women- only events held at Tatts and they are popular. But I don’t think you should throw out 150 years of tradition all under the guise of making the club more economically sustainable.
“That’s not the issue.’’
McKay’s comments come as the deadline looms by week’s end for a special vote on whether Tatts should allow membership to women. Club president Stuart Fraser wants women to be allowed membership. However, there is a strong push among some members to keep the status quo.
VYING FOR CITY HALL
THE jockeying has begun in Liberal ranks to take over from Lord Mayor Graham Quirk. My City Hall spies say Councillor Quirk, 60, will pull the pin by mid next year, paving the way for his successor to have at least 12 months in the top job before taking on Labor’s Rod Harding at a 2020 election. This is despite saying he will run again.
Quirk’s three likely successors are Deputy Mayor Adrian Schrinner, planning boss Mathew Bourke and finance and economic development chair Krista Adams.
It’s understood Schrinner (above) is Quirk’s preferred option.
Bourke has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, copping criticism for missing council meetings because of his commitments to the local government super fund. He’s now being forced to take up the ball on the controversial Mt Coot-tha zipline.
Or is he? It was Quirk who copped a spray from the public at a press conference on the zipline, stoically telling residents the planning process was “far from completed’’ and they would get to have their say at the public consultation process.
Bourke missed council meetings to do his other job with the LGA.
Adams is seen as the dark horse. She is highly regarded by Liberal heavyweights.
TOPICS TO RUFFLE THE RIGHT FEATHERS
INTERESTING bedfellows among LNP powerbrokers in Brisbane’s west. Beleaguered Pullenvale councillor Kate Richards, suspecting a preselection challenge next year, is looking to shore up support and isn’t fussy about where she gets it. Richards, a Liberal moderate, is courting the reinvigorated Right, predominantly ex Nationals.
We’d love to be a fly on the wall when the discussion invariably turns to climate change, the republic, abortion and same-sex marriage.
BLUE OVER NEW LOOS
WHAT’S going on with restaurant toilets in this city? With so much development going on, restaurants are convincing planning bosses they don’t need them – just communal ones. But, sometimes you have to walk 100m, in the dark, to find them. Enough to give you indigestion.
GOOD CONNECTIONS
THERE are rumblings at South Bank over development plans.
One thing South Bank desperately needs is another bridge linking it to the city.
A tunnel linking Hamilton to Norman Park is also being considered.
BETS ARE ON FOR NEW DOG TRACK
THERE was a massive crowd at the opening of southeast Queensland’s new TAB greyhound track at Capalaba on Sunday. TAB turnover was better than the comparable meeting in Victoria, proving that greyhound racing is going well in the Sunshine State. Dignitaries included Racing Minister Stirling Hinchliffe, Capalaba MP Don Brown and Racing Queensland chairman Steve Wilson. They deserve plaudits for getting this off the ground.
An announcement on the region’s new one-turn dog track is still to come but, based on the bullish state of the industry, it can’t be too far off.
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