Professor Ross Fitzgerald » Blog Archive » The party’s over and Bligh is to blame

The party’s over and Bligh is to blame

31 December 2011 2,803 views 4 Comments

IN the new year, Julia Gillard and the poor standing of federal Labor will not be responsible for the defeat of Anna Bligh’s Labor government in Queensland.

The blunt reality is that Bligh’s government is one of the worst in Queensland history. Neither the Premier nor her government is up to the job. Its defeat will be primarily because of its incompetence. It is little wonder that eight key members of the Bligh team, including six former ministers, are retiring at the state election. They have simply given up on Bligh and Queensland Labor.

The theft of $16 million of public funds by a Queensland Health employee is the last straw in a history of incompetence that ranges from the health payroll debacle to poor financial mismanagement that led to the loss of Queensland’s cherished AAA credit rating. There are now 16 million more reasons for Queenslanders to vote against Bligh. Many senior Labor figures find the Bligh government so embarrassing that they are distancing themselves from it at an alarming rate.

When former premier Peter Beattie handed over to his deputy, Bligh, in September 2007, the popular Labor government enjoyed a two-party preferred vote of 59 per cent and a primary vote of 50 per cent. The transition followed years of Beattie promoting Bligh over other ministers into tough portfolios to enhance her experience. At the time it was regarded as an ideal transition.

Bligh enjoyed strong public support until her policies and performance showed a rapid decline to the point where today the Liberal National Party under Campbell Newman enjoys at least 59 per cent two-party preferred support and is on track to give Labor an absolute hiding whenever Bligh goes to the polls.

It was a serious error of judgment on Beattie’s part to promote Bligh when there were more talented choices available, including John Mickel and Rod Welford. It seems Beattie was more interested in putting Queensland’s first female premier into office than promoting the best candidate.

State Labor’s problems started when Bligh became more focused on image than on performance. Her promotion of inexperienced supporters into cabinet at the expense of senior colleagues (such as Mickel, who is now Speaker; former police minister Judy Spence; former attorney-general Kerry Shine; and former ministers Lindy Nelson-Carr, Robert Schwarten and Margaret Keech) was designed to make her government look good but took its toll in poor administration in transport, health, infrastructure delivery and water, and in the cost of electricity.

Bligh’s failure to sack former health minister and close friend Paul Lucas over the health department’s payroll fiasco showed personal loyalty had precedence over performance. There also was not enough focus on detail. Instead, Bligh concentrated on managing the latest political disaster. The damage from this crisis management soon became irreparable.

Also, many members of Bligh’s cabinet are lazy. Government ministers are rarely seen at business events in Brisbane or in key regional centres and LNP frontbenchers are being openly courted as future ministers. The Bligh government has lost the links with business vigorously developed by Wayne Goss and Beattie. It is a pale imitation of past Labor governments.

The fat bureaucratic structure of super departments was so cumbersome that one director-general was responsible to several ministers, making the public service process-driven rather than outcome-focused.

Besides, the quality of directors-general slipped as Bligh appointed favourites or ideological fellow travellers over quality candidates.

This resulted in a failure to properly oversee projects such as the desalination plant on the Gold Coast and the water grid; cost overruns on infrastructure; the protection of farmland from the expansion of the gas industry until it was too late; failure to build cyclone-proof infrastructure along the coast before last summer’s cyclone season; and accepting without question the recommended electricity price hikes from the regulator. The government also blindly followed Treasury’s line to abolish the fuel subsidy, which means Queenslanders now pay more for fuel.

The government ran away from tough decisions on matters such as the 10 per cent mandatory level of ethanol in fuel; taking the fight to Kevin Rudd’s federal government over the building of the Traveston dam; and the use of recycled water. Crucially, it caved in to union demands for budget-breaking enterprise bargaining deals that helped drive the state over the financial brink. This was the underlying reason for the state’s loss of its AAA credit rating.

The only tough decision the Bligh government made was on the sale of government assets such as railways to fund the budget shortfall. But even here Bligh made a hash of its implementation by not putting the issue to the people in the 2009 state election, thus costing her valuable credibility. The deal also meant Queensland sold off the most profitable parts of Queensland Rail and kept the unprofitable parts. On election night, Labor seats will fall to the LNP throughout the regions because of how the QR sale was handled. The Bligh government is guilty of 4 1/2 years of dysfunctional administration and Queenslanders know it.

Deputies are often promoted beyond their abilities into the top job. Bligh was such a deputy and state Labor will pay a price. It is normally foolhardy to predict the outcome of an election with two or three months to go, but all published research confirms Queenslanders have reached the view that Newman and the LNP couldn’t possibly do a worse job than Bligh and state Labor. Premier Newman will have a substantial majority.

When Labor examines why it lost the 2012 Queensland election it should start with Beattie’s ill-advised decision to promote Bligh as his successor.

Ross Fitzgerald, emeritus professor of history and politics at Griffith University, is the co-author, most recently, of the political satire Fools’ Paradise.

The Weekend Australian,Ã‚Â December 31, 2011

4 Comments »

David Peel said:

What an accurate assessment of the tradgic recent history of the sorry state of Queensland politics.This is by far the best article I have read on this issue…Bring on the Queensland elections!!The sooner the better…..

# 2 January 2012 at 12:01 pm

Mattie Turnbull said:

I find it hard to believe that someone who is depicted as ‘historian, author and columnist’ never mind ‘academic’ can write an ‘opinion’ so imbalanced and polarised. Surely a columnist should have some objectivity with at least the notion of what Queensland will get if the current Opposition achieves government. Your hatred of Anna Bligh borders on the manic. What will you be able to come up with when Anna Bligh retains government due to her courage and generosity regarding the social upheaval due to the natural disasters which occurred in Queensland in 2012? The punters are smarter than you – but no doubt you cannot contemplate such a thing.

# 2 January 2012 at 11:29 pm

ABC/StevePrice (author) said:

ABC News 24 (National Australia)
Afternoon Live – 25/01/2012 – 03:12 PM
Kim Landers

Ross Fitzgerald, Emeritus Professor of History and Politics, Griffith University, and columnist, The Weekend Australian, discusses the Qld elections, after Premier Anna Bligh announced the date as the 24th of March. Fitzgerald says Bligh and her party believe a longer campaign will allow them to expose the weaknesses in Campbell Newman and the Qld LNP. Fitzgerald says Newman will have to win the seat of Ashgrove from the popular sitting Member Kate Jones and will not have money to fly across the state campaigning as he is not in Parliament, though the South-East Queensland seats he will concentrate on are the ones that determine the election outcome. Fitzgerald agrees Labor may try to play up the confusion of the LNP having two leaders, with Newman and Parliamentary Leader Jeff Seeney, but that the LNP’s performance will matter the most. Fitzgerald says Bob Katter’s Australia Party may win three or four seats, including Katter’s son winning the Mt Isa seat. Fitzgerald says LNP will not so much focus on the ‘time for change’ message as Bligh’s untrustworthiness and her Government’s incompetence. Fitzgerald says Peter Beattie has distanced himself from the current Qld Government. The Local Government Association of Qld and Brisbane Lord Mayor are angry that the election date will push back council elections and Fitzgerald says Bligh’s line about the date being set so voters could see the floods inquiry report will not digest with voters. Fitzgerald says the electorate’s lack of trust with Bligh compares to Julia Gillard. Fitzgerald says Newman is the first leader of a conservative Qld party to come from Brisbane.

Melbourne Talk Radio (Melbourne)
Breakfast – 25/01/2012 – 09:56 AM
Steve Price

Interview with Ross Fitzgerald, Political Analyst, Griffith University.
Fitzgerald says it is unlikely that Anna Bligh will hold onto power at the election she is expected to announce this morning. He says the revelations about the Wivenhoe Dam would likely overtake any positive feel she received from her handling of last year’s floods. He says Bob Katter’s Australia party might pick up some seats in an election. He says Campbell Newman, opposition leader could lose his seat, but the LNP could win the election. He says he would be surprised if Bligh was re-elected and should not win. He says the wider electorate are aware of the Wivenhoe dam issue.
Â© Media Monitors 2012

Interviewees: Ross Fitzgerald, Political Analyst, Griffith University
Duration: 3:25

# 13 February 2012 at 2:10 pm

Natasha Bita said:

The carbon-copy policy campaign

“I think the election will be very much about personalities,” predicts Ross Fitzgerald, emeritus professor of history and politics at Griffith University.

John Wanna, professor of public policy at the Australian National University, agrees that Labor and the conservatives traditionally spout similar policies.

The LNP’s election theme will be to crusade against a “tired, old Labor government” and promise rejuvenation under the leadership of Campbell “Can-Do” Newman, a successful lord mayor of Brisbane.

Labor will target the LNP’s inexperience in government, spotlight the at-times controversial business dealings of Newman’s in-laws, and try to spook voters not to “gamble on Campbell”.

But in the end, a chasm between country and city voters will dictate the policy priorities in Australia’s most decentralised state.

Over the next month, a twin-track campaign will send different messages to city voters in the southeast corner and those in the regions that rely on mining, farming and tourism — a natural Nationals heartland that will be hotly contested by Katter’s upstart Australian Party.

A Newspoll commissioned by The Australian over the past fortnight reveals that most voters rate health as the top issue in Queensland’s election campaign.

Putting more public servants on the front line — more nurses, teachers and police officers — is at the core of what Newman refers to as his “philosophy of government”. He plans to dismantle the mega-departments Bligh set up after her last victory and “cut the waste” from what he considers to be bloated bureaucracies.

Bligh has nominated education, job security and the environment as the three top issues for Labor. The spiralling cost of living will dominate the campaign, sidelining the minor parties from a debate over who is best qualified to navigate Queensland through economic uncertainty.

Katter’s campaign slogan is to “vote for your country”, and the policies include blocking the sale of the Abbot Point coal terminal, preventing any privatisation of state-owned power stations, and cutting payroll tax.

Everyone should be free to hunt, shoot, fish, or four-wheel-drive “without unnecessary regulations”, Katter says.To his supporters, the sunshine state has turned into a “nanny state”.
The Australian February 20, 2012

# 20 February 2012 at 12:12 pm