Editorial: Jarrod Bleijie’s debate boycott entirely misses the point

It is important to have the courage to debate your political opponent in front of the people you are seeking to represent, writes the editor.

The real Deputy Opposition Leader Jarrod Bleijie on Tuesday. Picture: Liam Kidston

We again saw last night the value of campaign debates – of the people who want your vote having to face up to a few unscripted moments, something that the small army of staffers normally shield them from.

We saw also the value of those who want to lead our state take questions from undecided voters – and so having to provide answers to topics they can normally far more easily dodge when coming from a journalist in a media pack.

It is the way democracy should be – in fact, the way it started in Athens 2500 years ago when the powerful had to face the masses from atop the speakers platform at the Pnyx.

Fast-forward all those centuries and the importance of those seeking or in public office to appear before the people they represent remains just as critical – indeed the cornerstone of representative democracy.

Making your case in front of the voters is just so important. And one of the most important parts of that is being willing to have the courage to debate your political opponent in front of the people you are seeking to represent.

This is why it is so disappointing that the man who could be our new deputy premier on Sunday has flatly refused our invitation to turn up on Thursday and debate current Deputy Premier Cameron Dick in front of an audience of undecided voters ready to question them both.

We first extended this invitation to Mr Bleijie several weeks before the campaign began. He has had plenty of notice. But for whatever reason he has flatly rejected the invitation – and deceitfully tried to turn it into a challenge issued by Mr Dick, which it never was.

Mr Dick, on the other hand, was quick to accept our invitation – at the specified time – without any challenge to any of it.

Mr Bleijie’s reasons are not really clear. He has instead resorted to Trumpian insults of Mr Dick in an attempt to deflect from the fact that he wants to sail into high office without having faced the people, or debating his opposite number.

The Courier-Mail has organised debates between candidates who are not the two party leaders at every election. It is exceedingly rare for anybody to knock back the invitation – we assume because they value those central tenets of representative democracy.

We have certainly never known any candidate to refuse to turn up, and then turn the blowtorch on their opponent in the schoolyard-bully style that Mr Bleijie has.

Labor’s Cameron Dick will be forced to debate a cheap cardboard imitation of the LNP’s Jarrod Bleijie in the battle of the deputies. Picture: John Gass

“I have zero interest in giving Cameron Dick a platform for his own ego-driven ambitions to be the leader of the Labor Party,” Mr Bleijie said early in the campaign, entirely missing the point of having a political debate before an election.

“I don’t want to entertain the ego of Cameron Dick – he only wants to do some form of debate so he can hear the sound of his own voice,” Mr Bleijie said on another occasion, entirely missing the point that this was an invitation from The Courier-Mail and not the Labor Party.

“He’s desperate and he’s a bit of a loser, and I’m not in the business of debating losers,” Mr Bleijie went on to say, showing an unwelcome interest in bringing Trump-style politicking to Queensland politics.

“If you had a cardboard cutout of me in a room with Cameron Dick, it would be more interesting and make more sense than the real Cameron Dick,” Mr Bleijie said a few days later, after The Courier-Mail ordered a corflute stand-in for him – should he not attend.

These are not acceptable excuses. We will be hosting the debate in front of our Voter Verdict panel on Thursday morning. If Mr Bleijie does not attend we will have the corflute stand-in in his place.

But this is not a laughing matter. Mr Bleijie has not provided a single genuine excuse as to why he does not want to debate Mr Dick. He and his party are arrogantly thumbing their nose at Queenslanders.

This is an unacceptable approach to political accountability, and is not at all a good sign for the way the LNP is planning to govern.

SCARE NOW JUST A LIE

Premier Steven Miles and his Labor colleagues should do the right thing and concede their manufactured threat to abortion laws in Queensland is now over.

The backdown (or clarification, depending on who you believe) from the Katter’s Australian Party leader Robbie Katter yesterday over his threat to bring forward a Private Members Bill on abortion laws means the challenge to those freedoms of a conscience vote in an LNP-dominated parliament has been removed.

The Labor scare campaign that had at least some basis in potential truth is now built on nothing.

His party’s internal politics mean Opposition Leader David Crisafulli is unable to rule out a conscience vote on any change to the laws. But as the victorious premier he would certainly be able to stare down any threats from his ranks to start that process – and he has repeatedly said that a change is not part of his plan.

With Mr Katter now ruling out his party making the move, the issue is over. Sadly, do not expect the Labor Party or Mr Miles to make that concession – proving that this was never about the right of women to choose, but only about the political benefit to them.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here

Originally published as Editorial: Jarrod Bleijie’s debate boycott entirely misses the point