Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I want to speak on a matter of very great public importance—that is, to lament the passing of democracy in Queensland. The actions of Premier Beattie and the state Labor government in their approach to council amalgamations—which are, in fact, constitutional matters dealing with government and how people have a say in their own future—have been appalling and entirely undemocratic and un-Australian.

The action announced yesterday by the Prime Minister of allowing the people of Queensland to have a say in their future governance arrangements is in stark contrast to Mr Beattie and his Minister for Local Government, Mr Andrew Fraser. You would not expect much of Mr Fraser. He has never had a real job in his life. He is only young. He started his working life on the national secretariat of the ALP—so you will understand me when I say he has never had a real job. When he left the ALP national secretariat, he became a Labor Party organiser, running around organising all the unions, belting up a few people probably, stacking a few branches and getting people elected to parliament—obviously not a real job. He entered parliament at the age of 26 and became a minister at the age of 30. So he has not had many life experiences to clearly understand what democracy is all about and what the people of Queensland want.

The Local Government Association of Queensland is a very respected organisation which has been apolitical all its life. In fact, it is chaired by an old mate of mine, Councillor Paul Bell from Emerald, who will not mind me saying—because it is well known—that he is a member of the Labor Party. Last I heard he was a member of the Labor Party, although I would imagine he has seriously considered ripping up his membership because of the way he and local government in Queensland have been done over by Mr Beattie. Polling done for the Local Government Association of Queensland by a respected pollster called Market Facts Queensland shows that nobody in the affected areas, with one exception, is in favour of these amalgamations.

Whether the amalgamations are good or bad is something that I guess you could argue about, but what the people of Queensland are absolutely appalled at and antagonised about is the process that has been followed. A so-called independent committee was set up—although it has been suggested to me that Mr Beattie wrote the terms of reference and ensured the outcome before the committee even met for the first time—and allowed submissions, but with no consultation it came up with recommendations, which Mr Beattie adopted immediately. Councils and local people had no opportunity to have a say in what should happen.

This is not like an ordinary decision of government—this is not: ‘Will we reduce taxes?’ as our government often does, or ‘Will we put tax up?’ which we never do, but the Labor Party does. You do not expect to have a poll of people on those sorts of things, but this is an issue of governance. It is almost a constitutional issue: ‘Who do you want to govern you; how do you want to be governed?’ The Queensland government has, with the stroke of a pen, taken away from Queenslanders the opportunity to have a say in how they will be governed at the local level.

The results of the survey that I mentioned show clearly that 32 per cent of citizens in the affected areas—and this poll was only taken of people in councils who are being affected by the amalgamation—strongly oppose amalgamation and 21 per cent oppose it; that is, 53 per cent. Twenty-two per cent do not have a view—they neither support nor oppose—and 13 per cent support it. Nine per cent strongly support it. That is, a total of 22 per cent of the people support it, which means that 80 per cent do not support it—either very strongly or in a medium way—or do not have a view. This piece of legislation is being thrust through the Queensland parliament I think today.

There is no limit to the trickery that Mr Beattie’s government will go to. This is a government that, I might say, has learnt its skills from a bloke named Kevin Rudd, the current leader of the Australian Labor Party in the federal parliament. Mr Acting Deputy President Hutchins, you would know that Kevin Rudd was Peter Beattie’s right-hand man, his adviser for many a year.