The intersting point to come out of this is in the implications for fixing the health system. For if 55% of the general public don't trust Beattie to fix the health system then what proportion of the actual health system employees would trust him? It would certainly be a lot higher than the general public so let us assume that 70% of people within the system don't trust him. That is bad enough in itself but the key to bringing the system back up to speed is to either attract new entrants or to induce those who have given up on the system to return to their old jobs. And it is actually this latter group, most of whom are either originally from Qld and have moved or are still in the state but in the private system that will make or leave broken, the system.

And what proportion of this group would trust Beattie to fix the problems he created himself? In a word, zippo. And that is the grim reality we face in Queensland. Essentially none of this huge cohort of experienced people with strong existing or past links to our state will ever come back while the current administration is in power. Their well founded and deep mistrust of this administration is the single biggest hurdle that any recovery effort must resolve.

And the only thing that will resolve that issue within the time frame that the community has a right to expect is an early election. It is the most contributive step, the critical step, in any restoration of health services. As the quote goes, "you have sat to long there for any good that you have done, enough now, and be done with you, for the love of god, man, go".

I hope that the predictions of this article do come about, and would like to point out one side-effect.

The Queensland National Party, having unburdened itself of much of the memory of Joh's antics, is seeking to displace the New South Wales Nationals as the most powerful in the federal system. If they are unable to do that, they will settle for being a vocal and visible minority, earning them a share of power. The Queensland National's conversations with its senators in the federal parliament is a sign of an attempt to use federal politics to win power in state politics and then hope that gains in state politics will translate to federal ones too. Queensland - less affected by the "sea-change" and "tree-change" phenomenon than Victoria and NSW where it is enough to switch National seats to Labor, then onto the Libs in a three-way contest at the next election - offers the possibility of greatest National gains, both in the Federal and State elections, and it is hoped by some that it will become the focal point for a revival of the party.

The consequences of Beattie's loss would be not only to break the Labor stranglehold on the states, but also to test the unity of the coalition on a state and federal level - increasing the Queensland National's demands for recognition and power, and many Liberal's demands for either greater competition with their National cousins, or a cessation of the perceived preferential treatment of the Nats federally.

Anyhow, Perseus is right regarding the health system. A certain catharsis is needed before people will be willing to work together, and that will only hinder Labor futher, as they are perceived to be burdened by the miasma of the Doctor Death scandal.

As a former ALP supporter, I despaired of Beattie almost from election night 1998 ("Jobs, jobs, jobs, that's what I'm about, jobs jobs, jobs." Soon shown to be nonsense). The problems with Queensland Health are replicated throughout the system, most of the most senior public servants are complicit with the government and it will take more than a change of government to render departments functional. The first thing that a post-Beattie government should do is scrap the no-redundancy policy for their lackeys, sorry, for "Queensland public servants"; the second thing is to disband the so-called Department of State Development; the third thing is a cull of senior ranks in most departments. But this will be of benefit only if the the QPS is henceforth headed by competent and well-intentioned professionsals - genuine servants of the public - rather than "mates" of the governing party or parties. The new departmental heads need to be given clear hire-and-fire powers to replace deadbeats, apparatchiks and party stooges with people of the right quality and attitude.

The Story of the Roman Empire.

Beattie has done a remarkable job on taking queensland to the world.

Our industry is in top condition, our Businesses are humming along with government support nicely, yet our own backyard has rotted to this dire state.

It comes down to trusting your people. If the Health Ministers did the job in the past 10 years, flagged the problems, saw the future and lobbied to get it fixed, we would not be in such poor shape.

Beattie, whilst it being his ship and ultimately him responsible, is a good strong leader. He is good for queensland, gels with those in power and has done plenty for QLD and QLD business, mine being one of them.

He has let his inhouse matters slip by trusting those underneath him to do the Job. It happens to the best of us, especially when he has those calibre of people he is forced to work with.

Springborg, can you imagine him as a leader? His negativity will impeed on this performance, and he has not got the people skills to keep Queensland moving.

I dont vote labour, i am not party affiliated, i am personality affiliated, as is the future of politics.

Beattie has plenty to do now and he will probably get the chop for this, but look at the lack of alternates. We need strength, we need to keep queensland as an engine room feeding industry around the world, but in order to even contemplate or achieve this your own backyard needs to be in top shape.

Placing defective overseas doctors and putting those students through who may not make the grade to get the numbers up, all it serves to do is detriment the system further.

Dont lower the standards to achieve results quickly, just provide total financial and infrastructure support to those in the system, who drop out for a myriad of reasons.

There is a saying in the army. "You are only as strong as your weakest person". The same goes for skilled professionals, including Politicians and Doctors.

A change of government might also have some fun shutting down some of the informal ALP branches normally known as the Boards of GOC's.

I suspect that they will find it difficult to avoid doing the "they stacked the boards with people loyal to their party so we van do the same" thing rather than appointing people based on merit.

It is worth pointing out (the article seems to ignore it) that health is just one of a string of similar govt run areas in Qld which the running can be read as "run into the ground". The spotlight might be off some others at the moment but the spending goes on to try and patch up the infrastruture damage of recent years.

R0bert

faustino

Actually Beattie was not lying, he said Jobs Jobs Jobs for my boys, for my union hecks.

Jobs Jobs Jobs more jobs for public servants, more members for the public sector union, more donation to the ALP.

All these more jobs makes a mess of the state budget, meaning that we cannot have health care, but at least Beattie was not lying