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

From time immemorial in our country, local councils have had the ability to question and poll their constituents on issues of importance to those local constituents. Nowhere in the democratic world have I ever been aware of a state government demanding by legislation that councils should not conduct a poll, yet this is what is happening in Queensland at the present time. Why there is not outrage in this chamber from all sides, I cannot comprehend. This is the greatest attack on freedom of speech that Australia has ever seen.

Whilst the opposition talk about conducting polls on nuclear power plants—and my colleague Senator Lightfoot has very clearly answered that—there is nothing to stop a council conducting a poll on a nuclear power plant or on anything else, except if you happen to live in Queensland. If you happen to live in Queensland, you cannot conduct a poll on a particular matter. And what is that matter? It is a matter of governance and whether the way you are democratically governed in your particular locality should or should not continue. A Queensland Labor government has determined by legislation that, if any councillor should dare to suggest that their constituents have a say, they will be in breach of an act and will be fined a maximum penalty of 15 penalty units, which is a substantial sum of money. The Queensland act goes on to say that any councillor who should have the temerity to ask his constituents for an opinion will face having to pay personally any costs incurred in doing that.

This sort of antidemocratic, un-Australian legislation is unbelievable in a country like Australia. I am disappointed the Labor Party in this place have not demanded some protection of freedom of speech. The union movement in Queensland—and of course all of my colleagues sitting opposite me are only in this chamber because of the union movement—were initially totally opposed to this because they knew that it would mean a loss of jobs in rural and regional Queensland. Mr Bill Ludwig, from the Australian Workers Union and father of Senator Joe Ludwig, was totally opposed to it. Suddenly, he has gone all quiet and we wonder why. As Senator Johnston said in answer to Senator Carr’s question, it is because the AWU in Queensland have been made part of the Queensland local government system in the transition process. That is why the unions have been bought off.

Australians must not contemplate having another Labor government in this country so that we have wall-to-wall Labor governments—eight Labor state and territory governments and a federal Labor government—because the arrogance of Mr Beattie, the arrogance that the Queensland state Labor government demonstrate, would be palpable and would consume and continue on into a federal Labor government. Mr Beattie demonstrates the arrogance that Labor governments exude. You can imagine if there were a Labor government in Canberra, unaffected and unable to be dealt with by an opposition here, the arrogance that Mr Beattie displays would roll over into a Rudd Labor government. Mr Beattie’s actions demonstrate very clearly to all Australians just how undemocratic Labor governments can be. The outrageous approach of the Queensland Labor government in not allowing Queenslanders to have a say on a matter of governance cannot be left to pass without outrage.

There were opportunities for Queenslanders themselves to demonstrate in the street, but Mr Beattie told the SES workers that if they put up any barricades they too would be sacked. And this is a supposedly democratic government. There is not an upper house in Queensland so its Labor government rules as it wishes. (Time expired)