A STATE GOVERNMENT WITH THE 'SPEED WOBBLES'
Cranky Lizard believes that no political party should gain any advantage, or bear any loss from comments made in these articles. It should, however, be evident that Cranky Lizard is repelled by the softcore political pornography of socialism, which is Communism's underhanded, grubby and soiled cousin; and that has been said often enough on these pages.
No surprises there! So if socialist political parties are offended by Cranky Lizard's words…. c'est la vie!
Cranky Lizard comments and expresses opinions on political events and social trends that are available for all to see. Cranky Lizard also knows, and expects, that there will be many who will disagree with the expressed opinions, some will even be outraged, others will make sensible and critical comments, and others won't even be interested, or they will act like a startled squid and hide behind a cloud of black ink …and that is all OK!
Cranky Lizard has written similar words on previous occasions. They are worth repeating.
Queensland is one of the large states, by landmass, in the Commonwealth of Australia, and it has a robust economy which is driven by mining, agriculture and tourism. Queensland is a state rich in natural resources and, in general terms, this serves the citizens of Queensland well.
And, again, in general terms, Queensland has been adequately served by its elected State Governments – for the majority of the last thirty years usually formed by the Australian Labor Party.
No criticism of this that is the way that the political cookie has crumbled.
It is, however, an iron rule of politics that the longer your party forms the Government, the more vulnerable you become to electoral defeat. Simply because the electorate becomes tired of your faces, your policies become arrogant and self-serving, you become beholden to substantial vested interests and factions within your political spectrum. They will dictate your Ministry, whether you like it or not because your time in Government has become symbiotic with their continuing support.
All this causes angst, infighting, internecine brawling and, eventually, incompetence in delivering sensible Government.
And we can see this in the huffing and puffing of the State Government.
Because of its' unique size and population distribution, Queenland's economic engines are spread across a broad cross-section of activity and geography.
There is mining in the Central Districts; there is agriculture in the West, the South West and the North; spectacular tourism on the sun-drenched beaches of the Eastern Coastline all the way North to the tropical city of Cairns and a buzzing hub of activity centred around the large regional cities and the State capital related to distribution, logistics, the arts and administration.
Layered upon Brisbane is a cosmopolitan sub-culture obsessed with its importance and its politics of climate alarmism, anti-mining, anti-tourism and anti-development and it carries far more weight with the current State Government than it sensibly should -but that is the reality of politics!
Any casual observer can see that regional issues dominate all politics in Queensland – always has, and herein lurks an exquisite problem for the current state Labor Government.
To deal with issues such as mining, for example, they need to calm the ruffled feathers and stroke the sensitive egos of the cosmopolitan mob to prevent a green tide of primary votes in the crowded Brisbane electorates.
Mining provides a huge royalty income for the State Government, an income against which it can borrow vast sums of money to fund its bloated public service and its obscure social engineering programmes, about which most of the electorate know very little. So the Government does not want to upset the miners; therefore, the delicate ballet of calming the greens and keeping the mining unions on side flutters on and on.
Modern labour governments are mystified by agriculture. They simply do not understand it at all, which is strange, considering that the reason why the labour movement came into existence in the first place was because of the injustices existing in the agricultural workforce. It seems as if they have not been able to move on from the mental image of the wealthy, cruel squatters crushing the workers in the district while making squillions of dollars from wool from merino sheep and beef meat from cattle.
Cranky Lizard points out that nothing, absolutely nothing could be further from the truth! Sheep farmers, cattle farmers, grain producers, fruit growers, market gardeners, winegrowers are certainly the hardest working and most vulnerable members of our economy. The days of dinners by chandelier light each night in the squatter's mansion are long gone.
These men and women are some of the best producers of food in the world – they can compete in any world market on price and quality of produce. They work incredible hours under challenging circumstances, hostage to the vicissitudes of the climate – dealing with drought, wildfire and floods; often in succession.
And yet, the legislative obstacles placed on agriculture, in general, seems petty almost vindictive, in the opinion Cranky Lizard.
The Queensland tourist industry is one of the most sophisticated and well-engineered economic sectors in the State. It attracts hundreds of millions of tourist dollars from international and national sources each year. It provides tens of thousands of jobs up and down the East Coast of Queensland, and it too is bedevilled by constant and contrived claims of 'killing the Great Barrier Reef' each year, or whenever some sycophant from the United Nations arrives in Queensland accompanied by a tribe of compliant media.
Cranky Lizard observes that all of this constant buzzing and fluttering is Government of appeasement -keeping all the various mobs and single-issue activists happy thereby hoping to keep their votes in State elections.
But, in Cranky Lizard's opinion, this is not State Government. State Government is accepting responsibility for the whole of the economy of the State, taking responsibility for all of the State's citizens and rising above the noise of the mob and providing leadership and certainty for all Queenslanders.
Right now, that is not happening. And Queensland and Queenslanders are the poorer because of it…
But having said all that, Cranky Lizard looks at which party has had Government of Queensland for the majority of the last thirty years, and it is the Labour Party.
So, they must be doing something right, because Queenslanders are not that stupid to keep voting for duds election after election!
And that, once again, in Cranky Lizard's opinion, this fact raises the question of the quality of the opposition parties at State level.
The issue of presenting the people of Queensland with an acceptable alternative to the current Government must be occupying the minds of the opposition parties in this State.
The current State Government is a Government with the speed wobbles, it has been in Government too long, and a political change is needed.
It is the responsibility of the Opposition to make sure that they give Queenslanders a reasonable alternative at the coming State Election.
Cranky Lizard is still waiting for the endorsed Labour Candidate in the forthcoming election to make clear the facts about the source of the information of the Bribie Island nuclear facility. It is all very well to make a claim – in public life, you must be able to back up that claim with facts. If you don't, or can't, then why should people vote for you?
The Rider of the Pale Horse has just about exhausted his deadly purpose : Cranky Lizard wishes you all, whoever and wherever you are, good health and good fortune.
Life is good and there is a lot of it about.
Enjoy your days.