Realist, I think it's even too much to claim that Beattie can be thanked for economic progress and booming buisness. Federal government policy and the legacy of the development sparked off by Nationals such as Joh are what Queenslanders have to thank.

To top it off for Queensland, the Reds can't win a match... not even at home!

DFXK,
The Reds, yes you mean the private schoolboy rugby union [union, such an ugly name] that has very little following, compared to rugby league.

Yes Beattie has made mistakes can anyone name a Premier or Prime Minister who has not. Even the Murdock press admitts the fault has been with us on Health for generations. I do agree Beattie will have to fix the mess left to him by Joe, trouble is so much mess so little time, and Federal funding with which to fix it. Interestingly enough Townsville has just recieved Federal funding of $600 million for some new big guns for the ADF from the $17 billion surplus, however I have not seen any allocation to the States for Health.

The last Federal/State Health Agreement in 2004, cut Federal funding to State Health by nearly $1 billion so we know how much the Howard Government values hospital care to it's citizens.

With the crises in health and policing (Numbers)in Qld people will dump Beattie.

People are most affected by waiting times in health. In Policing people are sick and tired of the 'revenue raising' police activities and the lack of real policing in things like break and enter, common assault, car theft.

Beattie's grins have turned sleazy and his apologises have worn too thin.

I think he'll retire before the next state election...he hasn't much option. Swings of 40% won't be unusual in that election. The Labor party will roll out another Joan Kirner (But not one of the same substance).

What a change in rugby... a Queenslander coaching Australia and (gulp) Auckland and a New South Welshman to coach Queensland. You obviously arn't watching super 14 rugby Shonga. Nor have you been to Lang park with the other 35,000 odd spectators for the last two weekends

Shonga, I can't believe that after 19 years you are still trying to blame Joh for Qld health problems. It is all Labors doing. It was the government that scrapped the regional health boards, mainly because they needed local community reps and, being in the regions, most of the community didn't vote ALP. So they were replaced by the classic ALP fetish for centralised power.

Not only Joh, but 'Red Ted' Theodore must also be rolling in his grave in disgust at what Beattie has done to Queenslanders.

And good point, Keith, about police numbers. Once again, spiv central is trying to blame the drop in numbers on poaching by NSW since the Cronulla riots. But, particularly in the country districts where numbers have always been short, the poaching is by the beattie government itself.

The Department of Natural Resources has been poaching senior rural based police officers to work in their vegetation management compliance jobs. The existing departmental staff won't touch these jobs with a barge pole because they know how much injustice and persecution is involved. They all helped design draconian policy but are too gutless to implement it. So the department has brought in a number of experienced police who know all about busting people but nothing about the context of the vegetation laws. So they believe everything they are told by their new masters and slip on the jack boots without thinking.

The small community of Rosedale, north of Bundaberg, lost their local cop just recently. And for what? Out of 1200 odd properties that were identified as "potential illegal clearing" in the last satellite scan, only 5 or 6 actually went to court. The rest were doing routine management like fence lines etc. So these transplanted cops go from investigating actual crimes to spending all their time investigating 1 in 200 chancers. Something to be reassured about when someone beats your teenage son to a pulp on a main street.

I can't understand what Peter Beattie has done wrong. Why is everyone one on his case?

I mean so what if the

The health system is in total disarray
Education is failing our children with schools massively underresourced
Infrastructure is falling apart
The Police are undermanned and underfunded even with speed cameras
The State is in one hell of a shamozzle

Peter and his ex Deputy/Treasurer declared a budget surplus in previous years - you can't achieve that whilst treating the sick and injured and educating our kids can you? It is being proven all over Australia - that is what every State and Federal Govt has achieved over the past years. WE should be proud of them all!

How can anyone blame Peter for stuffing things up? Isn't he just following a well worn pattern of Govts? Isn't mediocrity the goal of all Govts? Why expect one to aim higher than their goals?

Poor Pete has been lambasted from pillar to post and what for ... doing what we expect of our Govts!

I for one want to thank Pete for not breaking the mould and for at least having the guts to let us see the he is not that good a media tart either.

All these ex-pollies get key jobs after they retire - does this mean that mediocrity is now everybodies aim - even business?

Realist, I wondered after reading your post if your were being tongue in cheek but it looks like you meant it.

Surely you don't think that Beattie knew nothing about the running down of the electricity network as it happened. Surely the unions were complaining to him for years as large numbers of long term staff lost jobs in exchange for big dividends paid to George St.

If Beattie knew nothing about what the ministers he appointed weredoing to their charges then he deserves to go for the gross incompetence of appointing such a useless mob. They have run Queensland into the ground and we will be paying for years to fix the damage.

I'll agree to having some concern about the Queensland coalition being ready to take on government and especially their readyness to do so without doing a business as usual approach.

Beattie has stuffed up big time and hurt a lot of people along the way.

R0bert