Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was listening very closely to the member for Fraser. I do not mind publicly outing myself and saying that I did vote in 1988 to recognise local government. I also know that our Prime Minister has said on many occasions that one aspect of the Whitlam government agenda he agrees with today is that we need to have a strong and vigorous local government sector, supported by a strong, capable, economically sound national government. The problem in Australia today is the delinquency of the state governments. The Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Democratic Plebiscites) Bill 2007 has been brought into this chamber because of the delinquency of the Beattie-Bligh administration in Queens-land. There has been a failure by that administration to recognise that, as good as the intention might be to achieve greater efficiency by amalgamating local govern-ments through the legislative instruments of state parliament, they are not subject to creation or dissolution at the whim of 15 men and women sitting around a boardroom table in George Street, Brisbane. They should not be subject to a cabinet stamp for change—not without referring the matter to the people.

The timetable that the member for Fraser is complaining about has been set by the Queensland government, who outlawed the seeking of a vote on this. They threatened to sack and dismiss councillors, mayors or shire chairs if they advocated participating in a plebiscite. This legislation is about protecting democracy and ensuring that democracy prevails in Queensland. As the member for Fraser said—and I agree with him—we should never be afraid of hearing local voices on this matter. This is not government by plebiscite; it is giving people an opportunity to speak.

We have at the federal government level reason to support local government like never before. Local governments are our most effective partners when it comes to the creation of roads and infrastructure. I am publicly associating myself with the efforts of the Australian Local Government Association and the Council of Capital City Lord Mayors to achieve better recognition. Frankly, I would be quite happy to move a motion for constitutional recognition of local government, but it has to be at the expense of the state governments, who are failing to pass on to the local government people the financial assistance that we give to them. The state governments hold on to the purse strings. We find that when we give a dollar to local government they do something with it. When we give a dollar to state governments 25 per cent of it is lost in the ether. In the area of vocational education—and I know a little bit about that from my experience in recent years—something like 30c in the dollar is lost. It is not passed on—the creation of a big bureaucracy in a high building in Brisbane is more important than getting results.

There are a lot of excesses in the Queens-land government, and the way in which the Labor Party has permeated all aspects of Queensland life is of grave concern to people. It is right that people are given a chance to speak through the holding of a plebiscite as to whether Premier Beattie or incoming Premier Bligh have actually got it right on these things. People are worried about what is going on. They are worried about level 6 and level 7 water restrictions. Part of the plans includes the seizure of water in people’s water tanks; under level 6 and level 7 water restrictions the state government are going to seize water that has come off the roofs and gone into the tanks, and put it back into general circulation. People are worried that the new Premier in waiting, Anna Bligh, stopped state government schools from being able to participate in the Australian technical colleges program. She said that they would not allow state government students to participate in this federal plan, yet local councils all around Queensland became active partners in the Australian technical colleges program. Be they Redcliffe, Pine Rivers or Caboolture, they were all there. But only one is going to be left standing as a result of what has occurred in Queensland.

People are worried that the Labor Party has even permeated the ranks of the Australian Federal Police in Brisbane. The Australian Federal Police officer in charge of an investigation into three Liberal Party MPs is the estranged wife of a Queensland government cabinet minister, the incoming Deputy Premier, Paul Lucas. His ex-wife is a Labor Party member and she ordered the raids on the offices of the members for Bowman, Bonner and Moreton.

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