Tim Nicholls benefits from preferential voting to take leadership from Lawrence Springborg Liberal National Party Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg has been defeated in a challenge by MP for Clayfield, Tim Nicholls. Mr Springborg mustered 17 votes in the first round over Mr Nicholls on 14 and a third challenger, Tim Mander, on 10. However, it was the […]
Redclaw politics in the unicameral state – Analysis: @Qldaah #qldpol
April 26, 2016
How Queensland’s electoral voting system was reformed within the space of a month. Table of contents Jump to comments section. Redclaw politics. Post-Fitzgerald Inquiry era. The Representation Bill. Eighteen minutes in Hell. Blood, teeth and claws. . Redclaw politics Call it a Coup d’état, a reform, an upheaval or the trashing of the legacy of […]
Tears, Queensland Nickel and the ‘moral hazard’: Analysis – @Qldaah #qldpol #auspol
April 16, 2016
Parliamentary records show how in 2014 the Abbott Government attempted to erode the remuneration component of the Fair Entitlements Guarantee. Queensland Coalition MP Ewan Jones teared up on Friday as he spoke of the hardship facing workers in his electorate of Herbert after the collapse of Clive Palmer’s Queensland Nickel refinery near Townsville. “This is a tough day,” he […]
Abbott handshake not enough to bring optical fibre to the bush: @Qldaah #qldpol #auspol
January 23, 2016
Out in Western Queensland a handshake is a done deal. In May 2015, the then Prime Minister Tony Abbott toured the shires of Barcoo and Diamantina in Western Queensland and inadvertently committed the Federal Government to a $16 million fibre optic project. It was sealed through a handshake with Diamantina Mayor Geoff Morton and Barcoo Mayor Julie Groves. Also present […]
Julie Bishop promotes jewellery for Liberal Party donor: @Qldaah #auspol #qldpol
December 23, 2015
The jeweller, the retailer and the foreign minister. How a blue opal necklace linked Julie Bishop to Liberal Party donors and sparked the war over the abolition of Sunday penalty rates. Foreign minister Julie Bishop has modelled an opal collier for one of the Liberal Party’s donors at the launch of the taxpayer funded program, “G’Day USA”. The […]
From #Watergate to #Ashbygate: A review of “Ashbygate” the book, by Joan Evatt @Boeufblogginon
December 4, 2015
A few weeks ago Ross Jones and Dave Donovan, of Independent Australia, sent me messages asking me to review Ross’s book on the Ashbygate saga. Despite being as crook as Rookwood I was more than happy to agree, and in due course a copy appeared in my letterbox. I was in the middle of reading […]
Impressions of #qldvotes by soon-to-be Qlder @Megh1997
January 31, 2015
Right now I am caught in a gap, an unfamiliar, vacuum-life period of time that began when I finished high school in the Northern Rivers of NSW and will end, hopefully, when I move interstate to Queensland and start university. I already know I am heading into a new life, one in which my financial […]
Jeff un-Seeney and the @CallideVotes question – #qldvotes #qldpol @Qldaah
January 29, 2015
A social media campaign to unite voters in the central Queensland seat of Callide, held by Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney, is calling for locals to vote for anyone but the Liberal National Party (LNP). The Facebook page ‘Jeff Seeney – Callide Votes’ and its matching Twitter account @CallideVotes have been attracting grassroots support across the […]
Money has swamped Qld politics, and that endangers democracy: @Graeme_Orr #qldvotes comment
January 27, 2015
Money makes the world go round. That’s a truism in a market economy. The promise of democracy – one vote, one person, one value – ought to balance that. But what if money makes the political world go round? Nothing less than the fate of electoral democracy is at stake if we let money swamp […]
Open For Business: Avondale @MarkDoyle00 #qldvotes
January 14, 2015
In August and September 2014 I travelled through Central Queensland from Dalby to Roma and Chinchilla, up to Alpha and on through Moranbah to Collinsville and Bowen, then down to Gladstone and Avondale. In every town I talked to people whose lives had been upturned by rapid coal and gas expansion. Every town had a […]
