Former Labor MP says Beattie must go

A former Sunshine Coast Labor Party MP has called on the ALP to kick Premier Peter Beattie out of the party because of his attack on free speech.

A former Sunshine Coast Labor Party MP has called on the ALP to kick Premier Peter Beattie out of the party because of his refusal to give local communities a say on council amalgamations.

Cate Molloy, who was Member for Noosa before she was dumped by Labor for her opposition to the Traveston Dam, said Mr Beattie had 'criminalised' free speech by outlawing referendums on council amalgamations.

Her comments come as Mr Beattie threatens a High Court challenge against Prime Minister John Howard's plan to outlaw Queensland's ban on council referenda.

Ms Molloy said Mr Beattie would go down as single-handedly destroying Labor leader Kevin Rudd's federal election chances because of bad blood between Mr Rudd, Labor MP Wayne Swan and Mr Beattie dating back to the days of the Goss Government.

"I am not only calling on Labor to find the backbone to disendorse Mr Beattie but if they don't have the guts to do it, I think Quentin Bryce, our governor-general should step in...

"When have we ever had laws made crimininalising our freedom of speech?'' Ms Molloy asked.

"This is very serious... people need to step back and look what is happening. We have an individual who is criminalising our freedom of speech in Queensland.

"If that is not destroying our rights and the things that the men went to war for in World War Two then I don't know what is.''

She said long-time Labor voters were saying to her that they would never vote Labor again because of what Mr Beattie had done on council mergers.

"People are actually saying in the street they were long-time Labor voters but never again.''

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Originally published as Former Labor MP says Beattie must go