I strongly agree with every word written in the article. Pity they come from a politician retiring at the next election.

Stuart Copeland's article only touches the tip of the iceberg.

The major problem with democracy in Queensland is that the newsmedia does not hold the Government to account.

In the past four and a half years since I have moved back to Queensland the Courier Mail has uncritically supported(1) nearly all the major policy decisions of the Bligh Government.

These include: support for the North South Bypass Tunnel, the Airport Link, the Hale Street Bridge and road building in general in the face of community objections, support for the Traveston Dam, the Wyaralong Dam, privatisation, the expansion of mining and, above all, mindless encouragement of population growth, whilst completely failing to acknowledge that most of the problems we face in Queensland have been made worse by population growth (which evidently Stuart Copeland also supports).

The only logical reason that the Government, the Opposition and the Courier Mail all support population growth is to suit developers and land speculators, who perversely manage to gain from this whilst making the circumstances for Queensland as a whole worse. I have written of this in my article "How the Growth Lobby Threatens Australia's Future" at http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=8485&page=0 http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=8485&page=0

Articles which show how poorly Queenslanders are served by their newsmedia include:

"Brisbane's housing unaffordability crisis spun by ABC to promote property lobby interests" of 23-June-2006 at
http://candobetter.org/node/610

"Courier Mail manipulates reporting of water recycling to demand early election" of 5-Jan-2009 at http://candobetter.org/node/972

"Courier Mail praises Bligh Government's 'solving' of population-growth-driven water crisis of its own making" of 3-Feb-2009 at http://candobetter.org/node/972

---

James Sinnamon,
Independent pro-democracy candidate for Mount Coot-tha

=-=-=

1. The Courier Mail does, at times, capably take on the Queensland Government, and rightly so, but usually only over less critical issues.

It seems to me that the purpose of this is to maintain a facade of objectivity in order to allow it to sell its principle message, that is, support for the pro-corporate, pro-developer, pro-land-speculation and anti-environmental agenda of the Bligh Government.

However, if the Bligh Government is insufficiently pro-big-business for the Courier Mail's liking it will also incur its wrath (see http://candobetter.org/node/342).

Isn't it amazing that not one mention is made in this article of the most sustained and corrupt abuse ever made of this parliamentary structural flaw in Queensland? Could it be that this is because the member for Cunningham is a member of the LNP whose predecessor, the National party under Joe Bjelke Petersen, was the most corrupt, most venal, most anti-democratic administration in this nation's history?

This article is breathtaking in its hypocrisy. Extraordinary what Opposition does to your sense of what is right and proper in a democracy.

Shal,

I must have been reading a different article than what you did. ("It has in the past proven to be unhealthy whichever side of politics has been in power, and is producing bad and arrogant government.")

I agree that the Joe Bjelke Petersen era was corrupt but a lot has changed since then, and a lot still has to change to get greater accountability for parliamentarians. The 'breathtaking' hypocracy you mention I think may have been warranted in the early 90's, but not so now. If people are so critical of the lack of accountability in the 'old days' then surely many would now be able to look past the happenings of two decades ago and objectively say that no matter who is in power, they must be appropriately scrutinised. If one thinks that the current system provides all the accountability needed, then that really is breathtaking.

It is obvious to me that after, for example, the Gordan Nuttal/health incident, the Labor government was extremely selfish, and it is ridiculous to think they could get away with changing legislation (that was designed to keep participants honest) just to keep their Minister clear of charges that did some good in keeping Estimates Committees accountable.

Good article Stuart, it's a pity your boss could not make room for you.

Orange East
No quarrels with your criticism of the current govt.

My beef is with the Nationals having the gall to criticise a system they rorted for all it was worth when it suited them.
That's the hypocrisy. To criticise on the grounds of a structural flaw which they exploited to the full. By all means criticise corruption but don't get on your holier than thou horse and say that the problem is structural when you were guilty of worse practices.

The only thing wrong with Queensland, is that until now, no Federal Government has had the courage to tell them they are a part of the Commonwealth, and Chief Justice Paul de Jersey is an atheist monster, appointed by the National Party, without one honest bone in his body.

If we had a brave and fearless federal Government, they would tell CJ de J, that he and his fellow blackshirts should go back to fascist Italy, and adopt the religion that governed there. Unfortunately, the Federal Liberal Government of Malcolm Fraser liked Blackshirts, and hated Christianity, and when they made a Federal Court, followed the Queensland autocratic model. In truth it is not Queensland where the rot started, its down in cockroach land, in NSW where Mussolini's ideas were first applied on a State wide scale. Its just that the Queensland Bar considered them beneficial.

Government in Queensland would be perfectly alright, if closet atheists would just obey the laws governing the separation of powers: S 51 and 259 of the Supreme Court Act 1995. These honestly applied would make it the best State in Australia.

However the Hells Angels Limousine Gang that passes for a Judiciary and Magistracy in Queensland, make their own Rules. Instead of two Justices of the peace appointed by the Anglican Church, we now have a magistrate appointed by the State Church under the Justices Act. If you are not a member of what passes for the Queen Street Chapter of the Hells Angels, you won’t be appointed a Judge or Magistrate in Queensland.

To keep in good with the authorities, this Renegades Club, refuses to do its appointed job and keep the bastards honest. These renegades throw up their hands in horror when told they really belong to a Commonwealth where there is a written Constitution. Before The Hells Angels Gang took over, Queensland was a wonderful place to live. Now it is a small fascist State governed by an unaccountable and autocratic Club, that has an unbelievable appetite for stolen goods. Other than that it is a great place