great article that sums up nicely the way rent-seeking passes for good policy in the politics of regional development

It seems that Paul has never heard of PORK BARRELL politics or the politics of snouts in the public trough. Which is of course the only kind of politics that has ever existed. Which is of course also the kind of applied politics that those on the so called conservative side of politics have always specialized in. Witness the battles against the influence of unions, especially the violence used by big business against unions in the USA.
Which, by the way, is the same mind-set that motivates and drives the Koch brothers.

Paul also rails against the (world) politics of vested interests. Never mind too that everyone is involved in, and depends on their own circles of vested interests, whether it be the local tennis club applying for a grant to renovate their clubrooms or for big business applying for ever more subsidies - or demanding that red and green tape be abolished.

Never mind too, that Peter Costello is now a lobbyist for all kinds of vested special interests. Indeed he produced a "report" recommending that various functions operated by the Queensland Government be sold to the vested interests that he is a lobbyist for.

And of course the Howard government specialized in catering for and subsidizing the "special" interests of the already well off, to the degree that people on incomes of say $100,000 now righteously demand that their subsidies stay in place, or even get extended.

Perhaps Sophie got her necessary come-uppance. Perhaps she was a "victim" of her own arrogance, the presumption that she was indispensible and "born to rule". Perhaps lots of people in her electorate just plain and simply perceived her to be a completely obnoxious person, and that she was mostly absent and invisible in her electorate. It does seem that she WAS an unusually obnoxious person, as right-wing zealots quite often are. As a right-wing zealot she quite often (always) promoted the politics of social division by appealing to the worst aspects of the people at large.