{"id":25843,"date":"2015-01-29T23:03:46","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T12:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=25843"},"modified":"2019-04-13T23:56:18","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T13:56:18","slug":"tony-fitzgeralds-qldvotes-editorial-our-chance-to-demand-honest-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/tony-fitzgeralds-qldvotes-editorial-our-chance-to-demand-honest-government\/","title":{"rendered":"No Fibs’ and Tony Fitzgerald’s #qldvotes Editorials: Our chance to demand honest Government"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tony-Fitzgerald-ABC730\"<\/p>\n

No Fibs’ #qldvotes election editorial<\/strong><\/p>\n

by No Fibs editor Margo Kingston<\/strong><\/p>\n

The big picture theme of the Queensland election campaign has been the extraordinary alliance of people and parties across the political spectrum to oust the LNP.<\/p>\n

Alan Jones led the right wing attack, personally backing all the minor party and independent MPs. He champions the preservation of prime farming land from Big Coal and Coal Seam Gas, and alleges cronyism and corruption by the LNP in the mining industry\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n

In the centre, Dr Chris Davis and Tony Fitzgerald have condemned the collapse of donations transparency and the dismantling of Fitzgerald\u2019s anti-corruption reforms.<\/p>\n

Environmental groups have thrown everything into asking Queenslanders to vote for their greatest natural asset, the Great Barrier Reef, and to inform voters of the abandonment of key environmental protections and climate change policies under the LNP.<\/p>\n

My feeling is that Labor based its campaign on restoring its base and seriously challenging the LNP at the next election. To me, Queenslanders deeply concerned about the big-picture issues of our environment, democracy, accountability and government for the people, not the powerful with the big pockets, have put Labor in a position to fall over the line.<\/p>\n

The people of Queensland do not trust the LNP government for good reason, and their distrust can only have grown during the campaign. Threatening voters with revenge in seats where their LNP MP lost office is despicable bullying, and making allegations against Labor without evidence is ethically indefensible.<\/p>\n

I believe Labor will win office, probably as a minority government. The LNP cannot lead a minority government because all minor party and independent MPs have pledged to keep Queensland\u2019s assets. I believe the interventions of Jones, Davis, Fitzgerald and the environment movement on behalf of honest government governing in the public interest has been crucial to the ALP’s success, whether they win or just fall short.<\/p>\n

No Fibs recommends that voters put the LNP last.<\/p>\n

I live in Gaven on the Gold Coast. I have voted Greens since the 2001 federal election, but will not do so this time in protest at the Queensland Greens’ decision not to suggest preferences in four winnable seats – Barron River, Cairns, Mt Ommaney and Bundaberg. To me, this is an election so crucial for honest government and the environment that is is indefensible for the Greens to risk the return of an LNP Government.<\/p>\n

My MP is the independent Dr Alex Douglas, who left the LNP due to concerns about its unethical behaviour. He has strong environmental and ethical credentials. As someone committed to forcing the Big Parties to lift their game, and knowing that if reelected Douglas would be personally responsible for his decisions, I will give him my first preference. I am very impressed with the Labor candidate Michael Riordan, and will give him my second preference. I will put the LNP last.<\/p>\n

Douglas and Riordan have worked closely together in the camapign, and after widespread destruction of their signage, the PUP candidate has provided security for both of them free of charge. This is a microcosm of the cooperation of Queenslanders across the political divide to oust what I believe to be a profoundly distasteful government.<\/p>\n

As a child of the Sir Joh era, I am casting my vote in honour of Tony Fitzgerald.<\/p>\n

I agree with every word of his #qldvotes editorial, published below.<\/p>\n

****<\/p>\n

The lessons of Queensland’s dark past have been disregarded. This Saturday, Queenslanders must make clear their desire for good governance and effective democracy, writes Tony Fitzgerald.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“It is not because a part of the government is elective, that makes it less a despotism, if the persons so elected possess afterwards, as a parliament, unlimited powers. Election, in this case, becomes separated from representation, and the candidates are candidates for despotism.”<\/em> – Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, (1791).<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Historically, practical democracy for Queenslanders has consisted of a right to choose between the Liberal National Party and the Australian Labor Party every few years.<\/p>\n

Legally, whichever party is chosen can pretty much do as it pleases until the next election. There are no enforceable checks and balances. With its single house of parliament, no bill of rights, and history of political malpractice, the state is extremely vulnerable to the misuse of power.<\/p>\n

However, there are unenforceable but nonetheless real constraints implicit in the nature of its political system. In a representative democracy like Queensland, Parliament exercises the people’s collective power on their behalf and for their benefit. The political party which controls Parliament is expected to use its power for the “peace, welfare and good government” of the state. It cannot legitimately exercise its power for its own benefit or the benefit of its supporters.<\/p>\n

As former United States Chief Justice Earl Warren pithily said: “In civilised life, law floats in a sea of ethics. Each is indispensable …”<\/p>\n

Effective democracy needs principled politicians; an independent, impartial judiciary; and, as the American author Norman Mailer said, “… individuals not only ready to enjoy freedom but to undergo the heavy labor of maintaining it”.<\/p>\n

US president John F Kennedy pointed out that “without debate, without criticism no administration and no country can succeed…”. It’s part of our role as citizens to hold government to account, especially when the media won’t or can’t do so.<\/p>\n

I have been, and am, critical of Queensland’s Liberal National Party Government, not because of a preference for another (or indeed any) political party but because I don’t want to see Queensland sucked into another vortex of mismanagement and ultimately serious corruption. The Government’s huge majority; a small, inept opposition; biased media support; inexperience; ignorance; and arrogance doubtless made a volatile combination.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the Government’s self-indulgence is astonishing.<\/p>\n

As usual, the parties are at loggerheads over which is the superior economic manager and, as usual, politicians’ dubious claims and assertions make it difficult for most of us to discern what’s correct, what’s spin and what’s simply untrue. Unfortunately, politicians routinely oversimplify issues and present very one-sided views, each pretending that its policy is not only correct but free from disadvantage.<\/p>\n

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Even with a massive majority, it’s difficult for a Government to claim a mandate to do things it said that it wouldn’t do.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

The Government plainly had a mandate to pursue its preference for development over the environment. However, it’s at least questionable whether it exceeded its mandate by so radically weakening environmental protection and approving so many controversial projects, breaking pre-election promises and benefiting Liberal National Party donors.<\/p>\n

Even with a massive majority, it’s difficult for a Government to claim a mandate to do things it said that it wouldn’t do or to use its power to benefit itself or its supporters. It’s been claimed that the government has:<\/p>\n