Queensland election 2017 editorial: Greens deal risks showing true colours
GIVEN the economic and social vandalism that is the cornerstone of many Greens policies, the Premier’s failure to rule out a coalition should be of great concern to Queenslanders.
QLD Election
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD Election. Followed categories will be added to My News.
AMID the maelstrom of election campaigns, every leader suffers the odd faux pas. Most are forgotten in the fast-paced 24/7 media cycle.
However, now and again these peccadillos can seep into the psyche of voters because they corroborate a stereotype about a politician or their particular party.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s inability to remember the name of her newly minted Condamine candidate Brendon Huybregts certainly deserves to fall into the former category.
It’s hardly in the league of former Liberal leader Bruce Flegg’s inability to say who would be premier if his party won more seats at the start of the 2006 Queensland election, or federal Labor leader Mark Latham’s overtly aggressive handshake with prime minister John Howard in 2004.
TAKE TODAY’S POLL QUESTION
Still it’s somewhat emblematic of Ms Palaszczuk’s trouble-prone campaign so far and, as Dr Flegg discovered more than a decade ago, when a tone cements itself, every misstep is magnified.
While Ms Palaszczuk’s gaffe was yesterday’s focus on television, a medium that obsesses over the “colour and movement” of campaigns rather than the substance, the Premier’s more crucial miscalculation revolved around the Greens. Ms Palaszczuk couldn’t, or wouldn’t, rule out a post-election alliance with the far-left outfit.
Rather than provide an unambiguous answer, the Premier stuck to stump lines about One Nation and the LNP, and how she needs a majority. Given the economic and social vandalism that is at the cornerstone of many Greens policies, the Premier’s equivocating should be of great concern to Queenslanders.
This is not just a theoretical discussion. The Greens are talking a big game at this election after their Brisbane City Council success.
And given the lengths Deputy Premier Jackie Trad is going to campaigning in South Brisbane, it seems even she believes this time it’s more than just the traditional Greens tub-thumping. For a leader who has supposedly got their attention trained on employment creation next term, you’d imagine the question of a Labor/Greens alliance should be relatively simple to answer for Ms Palaszczuk.
The Greens’ economic policies – such as zero carbon emissions, phasing out coal exports, rejecting new mines, and pulling the plug on gas exploration and production – would send Queensland spiralling into a recession of Great Depression proportions. At the same time, the Greens, by wanting to ramp up royalties, introduce new taxes and even fine people in scale with their income, would ensure an exodus of wealth creators out of Queensland.
Meanwhile, the party’s planning policies seek to prevent extensions of the urban footprint while restricting building heights, which would effectively hang up the “no vacancy” sign in southeast Queensland and send house prices skyrocketing. Then there are the truly absurd propositions, such as removing illegal drug taking from the criminal code and offering counselling as an alternative.
And the day after the “race that stops a nation”, it can’t go unmentioned that the Greens only elected representative in Queensland, Councillor Jonathan Sri, recently railed against horse racing.
This backdrop puts Ms Palaszczuk’s failure to rule out a Labor/Greens alliance, the same combination that gave Australians a costly carbon tax, into sharp perspective. Labor has invested much of its energies into denouncing any deal between the LNP and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. Yet it’s a scenario of its own making after the Government’s opportunistic move to scrap optional preferential voting.
However, while One Nation has more than its share of loopy policies, as well as conflicting positions, it can’t be forgotten that the Greens also represent a threat to Queensland’s economic prosperity, as well as our social fabric.
Obviously, it is in Labor’s interests to harvest the Greens’ support in this tight election campaign contest. But like the principle Ms Palaszczuk seeks to make her LNP counterpart Tim Nicholls comply with, the Premier should equally apply it to herself and rule out a power-sharing deal with the Greens.
If she won’t, it may be the faux pas that Queenslanders remember come November 25.
Racing right into record books
ANOTHER slice of thoroughbred racing history was written yesterday with the running of the Melbourne Cup.
Lloyd Williams, who knows a lot about racing, and this prized event in particular, went home with a record sixth Cup. He did so with an Irish horse, Rekindling, which was having its first Australian start and is the first three-year-old to win this race since 1941.
Williams is also the owner of Johannes Vermeer, another Irish-bred horse, which came second. The bit of romance for lovers of great racing stories is that these first and second placegetters were trained by father and son – young Joseph O’Brien pipped his father Aidan’s horse at the post.
Jockey Corey Brown, who won the race in 2009 on Shocking, adds another career highlight and is developing as one of the best riders in Australia.
As always, the Cup was a great spectacle, with more than 90,000 racegoers heading out to the track, despite threatening weather.
Responsibility for election comment is taken by Sam Weir, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details are available at www.couriermail.com.au/help/contact-us
Originally published as Queensland election 2017 editorial: Greens deal risks showing true colours
You can thank me for majority: Miller
RENEGADE MP Jo-Ann Miller claims her decision to reach out to Pauline Hanson gave Labor the winning edge at November 25’s state election.
Premier announces full frontbench
ANNASTACIA Palaszczuk has announced her full Cabinet for the 56th Parliament, including both familiar and new faces for Queensland’s most important ministerial portfolios.