Recent entries
- Legacy
- Holiday Camp
- Preferential voting
- Commissioner launches coast crackdown
- Stronger Than Grief
- "He's a dog..."
- System failure
- School terror project
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What we're talking about
- Phil of Springwood on "He's a dog..." @Bigfellah, with your permission, I would like to add that I thank you sincerely for acknowledging my success at being a ... more
- Bella on Preferential voting FIRST PAST THE POST ~ is not as democratic as you may like to think.In a preferential system every registered voters final ... more
- steve on A few facts on illegal boat people Hey Wendy - I'm an immigrant - I've lived here for 40 years and have learned to ignore people with attitudes like yours but ... more
- James Weir on A few facts on illegal boat people Wendy, I'm surprised anyone lives in Adelaide. Even the Welsh born redheads are getting out of the place. more
- Phil of Springwood on "He's a dog..." @Bigfellah. Again in typical Socialist Fashion, you are denying me my right to form an opinion. Mr. and Mrs. Newton ... more
- Meg on "He's a dog..." I believe that any ordinary person who assaults women would have been charged and jailed not sent to rehab. Has Matthew ... more
- Wendy on A few facts on illegal boat people Look around..In Adelaide now, you cannot spot an Aussie. Everywhere you look its Chinese/Asians, Indians and Pakistani's. ... more
- bigfella on "He's a dog..." Hi z,The point is: How the heck would Phil of Springwood know what sort of parents Bert and Patti were to their son? For all ... more
- z on Bob Brown Lazarus Where is the costings that they demand of everyone else, thier 5 minutes of fame will be up shortley more
- Shanelle on System failure The whole system is stuffed. I have been apart of it for 10years now and still im confused. Im in a bad place at the moment ... more
- James Weir on Barnaby Joyce How many Clem 7's would you like in your Super Fund, Barnaby? It lost $1.5B in it's current reporting period. Only Govts can ... more
- Steve Martin on "He's a dog..." Rebecca Wilson as per normal is just plain out of touch.The hitting of women is wrong but personalising this with "he's a ... more
- Ronny Of Brighton QLD on Preferential voting MichaelIve just come back from a holiday.That bloke Dean Jaensch Siad that if someone(call Him RONNY) had 40% he said 60% of ... more
- z on Preferential voting the way it is working at the moment is the first loser joins with 2nd loser and so on untill they beat the winner, so a ... more
- brisman on Bob Brown The guy is not green he absolutley red through to the core. His environmental visions are shallow and don't serve ... more
- z on "He's a dog..." bigfella, Phil of Springwood is not talking from so called flippantly expertise, Ivory tower stuff but more from commonsense ... more
- robert goodchild on Support our Diggers the sticker Idea is great.I would happily part with $20 for one and would like to see the profit go to families who have ... more
- Phil of Springwood on "He's a dog..." Hey Bigfella, back again so soon after your mobs magnificent defeat by the Tories, I thought you and the rest of your Left ... more
- z on "He's a dog..." Hey Phil, why don't you say what you really mean more
- bigfella on "He's a dog..." Congratulations to Phil of Springwood,We've become accustomed to his astute political and social commentaries based on ... more
The Bligh Government
An important feature of a Cabinet is that you save your disagreements for Cabinet meetings and keep your differences of opinion out of the public gaze. You don't have to agree with every decision, but once the Cabinet has made a decision that's it - you have a duty to back your colleagues in public.
The Bligh Government cabinet is showing signs of a tired, creaking group that's been at it too long. Cabinet discipline and solidarity are under pressure and the Premier's ministers are starting to get stuck into each other.
Yesterday I read this report about Desley Boyle, the Minister for Tourism, Regional Development and Industry and member for Cairns. She's a Minister and therefore a member of the Bligh Cabinet. She was obviously keen to talk early in the day about the problems of crime in her electorate and we asked her to come on the radio here in Brisbane and repeat what she was saying in Cairns - that police numbers were inadequate to do the job the community requires.
Desley Boyle became hard to get a hold of during the day - we were told she wouldn't be available to speak with me on the radio. I read her press release (download here) and it confirmed what she was saying earlier in the day in Cairns.
So we went to Police Minister Judy Spence for confirmation. She came on the radio yesterday afternoon and tipped a huge bucket on her Cabinet colleague Desley Boyle. She said she was wrong, plain wrong and that citizen patrol groups were not government policy listen here. She made it clear she was not happy with her cabinet colleague.
Last week I spoke with Health Minister Stephen Robertson about ambulances "ramped" at public hospitals - ambulances that are tied up with patients because the hospitals don't have the capacity to deal with demand. The Health Minister told us he's not responsible for the ambulance system and passed the buck for its performance onto the Emergency Services Minister. The Emergency Services Minister just has to run an ambulance system with ambulances tied up at Queensland Health hospitals - but no one is accountable for the whole system.
Cabinet solidarity is essential. And it takes strong leadership from the top. Anna Bligh should stamp her leadership credentials on this group and bring their focus back onto a unified approach to fixing the issues that concern Queenslanders - health, crime, education, roads, water, jobs and our future. Buck-passing and pointing the finger at colleagues won't fix a thing.
Blog comments
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It seems to me that our pollies (of all persuasions and at all levels) have forgotten who works for whom. In Qld, Bligh and her cohorts are raising taxes (sorry, charges), removing benefits, and selling assets without reference to, or the permission of, the owners and THEIR employers. A sharp lesson is needed! Unfortunately we must wait for the next election, but please, at that time, vote for anyone but the sitting member. Sure, we may end up with a mess but will that be so very different from the current situation?
mikem Saturday 6 June, 2009 - 6:06 AM -
i am a small business owner. i pay my employers super, my poloticians super but cant afford to pay mine. so even though i pay my taxes i am not one of those business owners that make great profits. i live modestly. i am not looking for a hand out. i m a single mum who raised my 4 daghters alone. i am now at retirement age but cannot, because of the unrealistic amount of the pension. how much longer must i pay for others benefits and keep working? i might just add, i find now i have a heart problem and am terrified about leaving myself in the care of our health system.
marita neville Thursday 22 January, 2009 - 10:38 AM -
I am on the old age pension.
My wife is still working as she is younger ,and not yet eligible for the pension.
She grosses $700.00 per week.
From that she must run a car.
She drives 12ks per day each way going to work.
She must maintain appearances at work so must buy reasonable clothes and makeup etc.
We were paying $200 per week rent BUT that has jumped $150 per week to $350 per week.
The Gov thought I could live on $60 per week and my wife would make up the shortfall.
With increased rent the gov gave me an extra $45 per week. So now, with outgoings of $550 per week excepting tax.(food .power.car.rent.upkeep of furniture -white goods etc.medical Gap costs.etc)you can see that ,not only are we living the high life but we are planning our next fact-finding tour of Disneyland.Thats were we should find all our politicians ---as inhabitants--
Were will my "bonus" go?
Just in trying to hang on ,or I might have to buy a suitable length of rope.
GregGreg Henderson Monday 8 December, 2008 - 9:55 AM -
Springborg, Johnson and company have been in opposition for ten years and have done a terrible job being belted by voters for their for their incompetence time after time.My point is Smith,if they cant even be in opposition successfully how in the world can they be expected to govern
Ben Slattery Friday 14 November, 2008 - 5:58 AM -
"John Charles Gilbert Wednesday 15 October, 2008 - 9:35 AM"
Maybe the Labor Party (no u dopey) needs bashing at this time. I've heard from a senior LNP friend that Smithy is an equal-opportunity basher, as they, the LNP have copped a bashing too.
Give 'em curry Snithy, which ever party they are from!
Glynn Thursday 16 October, 2008 - 4:42 PM -
i am a small business owner. i pay my employers super, my poloticians super but cant afford to pay mine. so even though i pay my taxes i am not one of those business owners that make great profits. i live modestly. i am not looking for a hand out. i m a single mum who raised my 4 daghters alone. i am now at retirement age but cannot, because of the unrealistic amount of the pension. how much longer must i pay for others benefits and keep working? i might just add, i find now i have a heart problem and am terrified about leaving myself in the care of our health system.
marita neville Thursday 16 October, 2008 - 9:45 AM
