Queensland election results 2017: Premier must get state moving again

ANNASTACIA Palaszczuk’s re-election as premier must be confirmed as soon as possible, as the task she faces is considerable.

Annastacia Palaszczuk could be confirmed as premier as early as today.

CONGRATULATIONS Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Barring the most extraordinary of circumstances in the form of recounts or legal challenges, you have emerged with a clear, if not exactly resounding, majority in the Queensland Parliament.

This is no mean feat. You led an emasculated Labor opposition, reduced to just seven seats after the 2012 Campbell Newman landslide, to a narrow victory in 2015.

Now you have a majority in your own right. There may be a couple of seats still hanging in the balance, and possibly some recounts, but on anyone’s numbers your Labor team is in charge of Queensland for the next three years.

Your opponent Tim Nicholls may not have yet conceded defeat, but as a former treasurer even he must realise there is no way from the LNP’s current total of 39 seats in an expanded 93-seat Parliament that he will be able to form anything resembling a stable government.

Mr Nicholls, you ran a good campaign but it is over. It is time to concede with good grace that Labor will retain control of the Treasury benches, and allow Ms Palaszczuk to get on with the job. Any further delays from what already looked like an untenable position more than a week ago just looks like sour grapes from a man more worried about his own tenuous leadership position than the best interests of Queensland. Get over it.

The task at hand for you, Ms Palaszczuk, is considerable.

As this week’s September quarter GDP figures indicate, once you strip out the contribution that exports of commodities such as coal and LNG make to economic growth, Queensland is still lagging behind our southern counterparts. Those exports are important, but not the sort of economic activity felt on the suburban streets of most of our towns and cities.

Ms Palaszczuk, as the latest Queensland Index poll of sentiment shows, your broader electorate is divided over whether the state is headed in the right direction or not.

The net result is neutral, but outside the southeast the picture is pretty grim, and that was clearly reflected in the strong primary vote that the likes of One Nation attracted for its mash of populist panaceas.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk speaks during a meeting with the Local Government Association of Queensland on Monday. Picture: AAP Image/Bradley Kanaris

You were widely perceived by voters and the business community, even given the constraints of minority government, of being overly cautious in your first term. After the rollercoaster ride that was the Newman years, the political equivalent of the Hippocratic “first do no harm” approach may be understandable, but for many that translated to doing not very much at all.

We saw little in the way of major new economic infrastructure for a state which is once again starting to expand its population. The Cross River Rail project remains in limbo, and numerous other pressing issues such as the M1 remain largely unaddressed.

You might argue that the balance sheet is stressed and the Government tried to live within its means. That parsimony is admirable, but little of substance was done to tackle the state’s debt burden beyond accounting shifts and transferring some of the burden on to the state’s GOC sector.

You delivered a surplus budget position, but as the accounts stand, that is a commodity downturn away from slipping back into the red, and there appears little commitment to tackling an alarming growth in public service expenditure.

You have the majority now. And Queenslanders want leadership, growth, jobs and clear direction.

Have the courage to put the best people — not just who the factions dictate — into the key economic portfolios. And then have the courage to stare down when necessary the unions or other interest groups, and make the tough decisions that will benefit us all over the long term.

Ms Palaszczuk, the ball is yours to run with. Don’t drop it.

United in quest for equality

AUSTRALIA, you did the democratic process proud. Rarely do we see people queuing to join a packed public gallery in our federal Parliament. Rarely do we see almost all MPs of all sides of politics sitting on the same side of the chamber for a historic vote, then rising to their feet as one — cheering, embracing and united with tears streaming down more than one normally very serious face.

We conducted a largely civilised debate — with some ugly exceptions on both sides — and yesterday finally signed off on an overdue reform that is marriage equality.

The world will not stop turning tomorrow, and the only discernible difference in most people’s lives will be a few more smiling faces and perhaps a couple of hangovers from last night’s celebrations. We are, after all, as the impromptu song in the Lower House went yesterday, “all Australian”.

Despite some 50 hours of often tortuous debate, the marriage equality Bill had nothing to do with bakers, school curriculums, electric guitars, cattle stampedes or the end of freedom as we know it. All it means is that, once the Bill becomes law, we no longer treat some loving and committed relationships as less equal than others — nothing more nothing less.

Our LGBTIQ brothers, sisters, friends, family and colleagues have every cause to celebrate. Well done, Australia.

Originally published as Queensland election results 2017: Premier must get state moving again