Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bonner for his question. Of course, the member for Bonner would recognise that, during the life of the coalition government, we have increased the number of programs that actually deliver very meaningfully to local communities through local government. We recognise that local government in Australia is the closest level of democratically elected government to the people and deals with people’s issues from day to day, with programs like Roads to Recovery and Regional Partnerships. I am sure that the member for Bonner, in representing his constituency, has ensured that there have been applications for those programs by the local authorities in his area.

Another we have introduced that the Labor Party never thought of when they were in government is the Rural Medical Infrastructure Fund. I mention this because we recently announced a grant of $360,000 for the Aramac Shire to develop a new medical precinct delivering vital health services in that small town in western Queensland. I am sure the member for Maranoa is well aware of this project in the Aramac Shire. I give that example because, if the Queensland Beattie Labor government gets its way, this will not happen anymore, because the shire of Aramac will not exist anymore. It is on the Beattie Labor government’s hit list to eliminate as a local authority representing the interests of the people in that part of Australia.

I was in Queensland on Friday last week and woke up to the news that the Beattie Labor government had added a further draconian measure to their legislation to wipe out local government in Queensland, and that was basically to stop any of the elected representatives from talking about it. I am sure that the member for Bonner, when he woke up on Friday morning at home in Brisbane, was aghast, the same as most Queenslanders. But we know one Queenslander who has had nothing to say about this and who was not shocked about the measures that are being taken by the Beattie Labor government, and that is the member for Griffith—another Queenslander who seems to have gone silent and very, very weak on this issue in Queensland, where democracy at a local government level is being totally trashed. All he has been able to say so far is: ‘We’ll look at it very carefully.’ They will start nicknaming him ‘the mirror’ shortly because he will keep looking into it.

It was interesting to read an article in the Australian today written by Glenn Milne—an interesting report on some of the views inside the Labor Party. There are Queensland members of the Labor Party who would like to see the member for Griffith act on this, who believe he actually has some power to do so and that he should start tidying up the damage that Beattie is causing in Queensland under the rules of the Labor Party. It is interesting that this article refers to the federal platform of the Labor Party recognising the ‘autonomous role’ of local government that is being trashed by Premier Beattie. They also recognise the ‘value of democratic and accountable’ local government in Queensland. The Leader of the Opposition has the ability to do something about this. He was able to get rid of his brother out of the Labor Party and he was able to get rid of Dean Mighell; he has not been able to get rid of Joe McDonald. Does he have the backbone to deal with Premier Beattie on this issue? Premier Beattie is just trampling the rights of individual ratepayers across Queensland by denying them the right to have a say in what happens in their local communities and, with his latest escapade, he is denying the right of their elected representatives to have a say in what is going on in Queensland. We know that a future Labor government here would be not just a puppet of the union movement but also a puppet of the state premiers.

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