GrahamY
I'm up in Qld at the moment.

Ok I agree Labor have dropped the ball badly.

But to be fair The LNP has hardly covered themselves in glory either.

“People are telling me they deserve better” (?!) Tell me any voter who doesn’t think they deserve better? Come on team lift the game.

Resident family members are still waiting for policy and policy explanations from both sides. Do you call that responsible or are NLP working on ANY win is a good win?
I know that’s the cynical (to hell with the public attitude) patronizing attitude of the NLP candidate in the Redlands (a Bayside electorate). As a key member of bitterly unpopular "dumped" Council Bloc dubbed the “Secombe 6&½ (nearly 4year 30% approval rating) He survived literally on a handful absentees (less that the incumbency factor). His of tantrums and pointless objections continued untill this campaign when forced to resign. (Clearly he learnt nothing from the drubbing.

So far his campaign consists of:

• Push polling barrage (6 in the last 7 days to one family members home.) either that or there’s heaps of incompetent polling organizations asking badly worded ‘loaded’ questions.
• Yet another pointless enquiry into green bans on parts of the bay for recreational fishing.(Pork Barrelling)
• Busses with picky and slogan
• And claiming a library branch (him and the two Cr’s before him)and the development (gee thanks..I wonder if the developer knows?)

To be fair the sitting Member (Labor) has seemingly gone (fishing?).

Add to that the single issue organ grinders.
One representing the selfish interests of the islands minority.
And an hysterical woman more worried about explaining an aging paedophile (under 24 hr control) 15 k’s from home to her pre- schooler! Than the issues facing Qld.

My point isn’t to bag any candidate per se but to show the politic for what they are in one electorate. Terms like minimalist, local neighbourhood watch presidential style, Fact free, Claytons campaign come to mind (you know the one the campaign you’re having when you’re not having a campaign).

Education is by far the biggest budget item in Queensland. There is no doubt that educational standards in the State are woeful. Notably the standard of Mathematics has declined to being pathetic, especially for the more gifted third of the students. Both sides of this election campaign know that there is a terrible problem but neither shows the slightest sign that it recognoses the main cause of that problem which is the disgracefully feeble subject syllabi allied to the corrupted assessment structures, both of which are products of the Queensland Studies Authority. The ALP talk money - more of this and more of that. The NLP talk money and pin their hopes on the proposed National Curriculum. All the evidence is that the outcome of the National Curriculum will be a collection of minimal standards which will do nothing to solve the problems for the more gifted people.

Sooner or later one party or another will have to come to terms with the fact that the ultimate responsibility for the shocking condition of education in the State MUST lie with the Parliament because they set up the QSA and they, Parliament, are the only ones that can take control of the situation to the benfit of our children.

Governments naturally and rightly are looking for ways to save tax payers money whilst ensuring that there is no decline in service. The ideal would be if they could save money and improve services!

Well, here is their chance! The QSA costs a vast amount of cash each year. Their productivity in terms of the educational standards of the children is not nil, it is negative!

Now, can the pollies work out what should happen to the QSA?

Pity it is too late for either mob to say that they will actually do anything now, but, ah well, maybe in another three years.

If Labor loses the election it will have precious little to do with the election campaign or with Springborg supposedly getting his act together. The Bligh government has a record of being accident prone and arrogant. How many times do Anna and her mates need to trip up before they learn?

In particular, its preference for affirmative action in selection for senior positions has rebounded on the government time after time. The law alone provides a number of notorious examples which keep cropping up as one did very recently, much to the embarrassment of the government.

How could it improve its position? Easy, disbanding the white elephant of a Water Commission and saying outright that the government will henceforth take the advice of its own engineers would be worth several percent of votes.

Promising to sack some of the incompetent Nancy Reagan (lights on but no-one at home) ministers and senior bureaucrats would be worth several more points. It is astounding how so few inattentive and incompetent senior bureaucrats have managed to cause their political masters to continually fall over their feet over simple, but long enduring problems.

Make no mistake, Anna Bligh has had to work very hard in office to lose support. Ordinarily, the wooden man Springborg would be unsaleable and the LNP has no policies, however 'The Borg' (a foolish nick) doesn't have to win anything, just keep his mouth shut as much as possible and Anna will give Qld to him.

The biggest concern is that the Greens stand to benefit from voter disgust with the major parties.

Yes, Springborg might just get lucky this time - sweet heaven forfend!

If he does, it will be down to the undemocratic arrogance of the ALP government. It certainly won't be because of Springborg's positive performance. Anybody who's ever met him knows that he's a decent enough bloke, but as thick as two short planks - and his media/parliamentary persona isn't much better.

Cornflower: << The biggest concern is that the Greens stand to benefit from voter disgust with the major parties >>

For some of us that's actually the silver lining of this election, i.e. that there's a slim possibility that the Greens and Independents will hold the balance of power in the new Qld parliament, thus forcing whoever forms Government (and their Opposition) to engage in unheard of practices such as consultation, conciliation, negotiation, compromise etc.

Mind you, my bet is that the Bligh government will just scrape back in, in its own right.

CJ
I suspect you're correct I here 2-3 majority is expected.
For giggles?
The thing that surprises me is the dis-level independents who think they have a chance? i.e. Heather Steinberg come to mind 5 minutes of fame lowering the respect of both women and the police force proving her lack of competence....Yep she's the one who appeared on TV screaming that she's a police person and she's worried how she was going to explain to her preschooler children how a nigh septuagenarian paedophile while und 24 hr surveillance had been housed in the same shire (15 Ks away!).
The Islands candidate (perhaps 8000 residents) is going to sweep into power why? An expensive uneconomic bridge promised by the dodgy failed developers some 30 years ago. Why? So they can sell their properties and make squillions again as promised by the same developers. The latter arrivals bought knowing WYSIWYG still campaign for Redlands City largess. Then again I suspect he’s trying to wedge enough 1st votes away from ALP too get the LNP in.
My *untested* observation is that there are disproportionably more one song organ grinders and the odd intellectual simian candidates in Queensland generally and more so in this election. This includes one that wears slip-on shoes to facilitate counting beyond 10. And when speaks subtract from the sum total of evolutionary advancement. Of course there are drones in all states.
Queenslanders are like political drunks don’t know what they want but are ready fight for it anyway.
Notwithstanding that occasionally there is a winner a real useful independent candidate like Wellington et al salary was reasonably spent.
All this means that despite the majors best (worst?) this election will be interesting.
I do hope the result will be quick so normal (?) TV viewing on aunty restored in time to watch “the Bill”. To distract me from repeating ‘we’re all gonna die’ too many times. :-)

C J Morgan. .."thus forcing whoever forms Government (and their Opposition) to engage in unheard of practices such as consultation, conciliation, negotiation, compromise etc."

Very well said and I totally agree with you, except that from what I have seen of the Greens they are no better.

What is a real pity is that there are some models of direct community consultation that work superbly and would serve us very well in (say) developing more liveable cities and reducing residential impact on farming land but vested interests continue to block their use.

Labor must be really on the nose.Springborg comes across as an dry unimaginative,authoritarian figure.He makes Bill Haydens's dover's dog look like a Hollywood glamour.

We seem to have a dearth of leadership around the entire planet! Is is the natural progression of decay before the dawning of a new enlightened era?

I don't know if I have the time or the energy to survive this modern dark age.Pax vobiscum.

When is the election? Just keep Springborg out of the water!

One thing that puzzels me is the slogan that the premier uses:
Vote for labor and Let's keep QLD strong!

So is she reffering to the QLD of today, if so, with its failed health, education etc, can we be called 'strong'.

Another thing that puzzels me is where all the money has gone.

In the past decade, or the bulk of it, we have seen unpresidented revenue growth from property sales and mining royalties.

Why now, after all this revenue, are we 'broke' in QLD after less than six months of financial downturn.

In reality, we should be 'financially bullet proof'! Don't you think?

I for one will not be voting for the LNP, rather I will be voting against labor!

eyejaw is correct when talking about the waste of money in education in QLD.
I’m with The Borg on this one – What Happened to All the Money?

In my time in state schools I was appalled by the wastage of both money and personal.

In the case of Maths the immoral waste was usually at the hands of those woeful HODs.

Too concerned with maintaining their own comfortable life-styles and perceived importance they thwarted any attempt to modernise Maths teaching.

I saw so many of these self appointed “upholders of standards” coaching groups of intelligent and self-motivated students to do tests and then passing it of as education. At the same time they openly conspired against any change to the status quo.

The damage they have done to education lives on – a moral and criminal waste.

G.Young.
Unfortunately the press have not compared the new candidates of the LNP with the ALP party hacks that have held down (particularly Brisbane)seats.
There are some outstanding highly qualified candidates out there that deserve to replace those hacks and be in a position to asist the LNP to better manage the state.
There are some there that could very quickly take over Ministries from shadow ministers after a short period of transition to government.

If it is a hung parliament I would like to see Peter Nicklin as independant speaker in an LNP Government.

The irony of the election is that the LNP probably need to win an independant seat.The one most likely is the member for Nanango.
The LNP candidate has form as the son of an famous (or infamous) ex Premier and Senator

Jacksprat.

I am bored with this election campaign. None of the advertising from the major parties is getting through to me because they are "assaulting" each other with this negative advertising.

I want to know what the local candidate thinks, but when I email him on issues, there is no reply. Perhaps he is too busy to care about answering a local inquiry. He'll pay at the election on Saturday.

However, it is a waste of time to imagine that a local politician for a major party will cross the floor on issues of personal commitment. If he/she does, that person won't be endorsed at the next election. Party politics is on the nose for me.

Isn't it amazing how Anna is worried about a "hung parliament" now? There's little talk of the independents and Green's having the balance of power. That would be good for Qld as politicians might realise that local issues are important and they have avoided them for this election.

I agree with other posters that the education and health systems are in a mess. Do you think that in 3 years any Govt. will fix them? I'm not holding my breath.

What's even more alarming is that this state is broke and that doesn't seem to bother Anna & the Labor party! But I don't expect the Borg to win on Saturday!

Thanks Cornflower.

<< ...from what I have seen of the Greens they are no better >>

Given that consensus and local decision-making are core Green values, I'm wondering what makes you say that. As an example, it is not the Greens who are unwilling to negotiate and compromise in the Federal Senate over the proposed 'alcopops' tax. The Greens Senators have negotiated a mutually satisfactory position with the Government, but it is the antics of Family First's Steve Fielding that look like scuttling the Bill.

During the current Qld election campaign, the Greens have negotiated a preference swapping deal with the ALP in numerous key seats - including that of Ronan Lee, who defected from the ALP to the Greens last year. I can assure you that there's no love lost there!

As far as the election campaign goes, I think that one of its biggest weaknesses for the ALP is their decision to mount a 'presidential' style campaign, pitting Bligh against Springborg while silencing local candidates. Although Bligh is obviously the more intelligent and capable candidate for Premier, the negativity of the campaign from both sides is obviously working for the Borg.

I can't quantify it, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the electorate tolerates negative sniping better from a male boofhead than from an intelligent woman.

Graham Young is reporting on a cycle of electoral truths that extends for many years in the Commonwealth. When the conservatives are in power in Canberra Labor rules the States, and vice versa. This is because although we have an Australian Constitution the electorate does not understand it, and neither do the lawyers in Australia.

Queensland is a funny place, and when it was mentioned during lectures in NSW a ripple of laughter would pass through the class room. Both Queensland in 1899, and WA introduced Canon Law, that is the Lex talionis, the eye for an eye law of the Old Testament with their Criminal Codes, in place of the Lex Misericordiae the law of mercy, that was a feature of English Protestaant Law. I seriously suspect that Sir Samuel Griffith was a Welsh Roman Catholic.

Under Canon Law, a Priest rules. While S 80 Constitution, has prevented the worst excesses the almost universal rejection of S 79 Constitution, by the Lawyer Priests of the High Court and of the Federal Attorney General which was to guarantee the separation of powers in Ch III Constitution, has meant only a partial Commonwealth. The wholesale importation of American translations of the Holy Bible, where the word citizen is substituted for the word Commonwealth in Ephesians 2:12, has helped break down the federation by dividing the Christian electorate.

If the electorate changes the Queensland Government, then the whole of the judiciary should be changed also, because they are universally dishonest and have been robbing the Treasury and the Queen’s revenue to line the pockets of the legal profession, since 1991.

S 51 and 259 of the Supreme Court Act 1995, which both guarantee universal jury trials, are in irreconcilable conflict with the Supreme Court of Queensland Act 1991, but not one of the Judges and Magistrates in Queensland has allowed their application ever since. If the new Government either Labor or Liberal will apply that law, then copious Federal money will flow to Queensland, because the legal profession who have been calling the dance, will have to now pay the piper

At last

Out with the old incompetent labor. Labor's record is of high debt and low growth whether at state or federal level.

Too bad we have to wait for 2 years for NSW.

The Greens have sold out on Traveston Dam. That old Beattie slogan of 'Just Vote One' is looming to bite Labor on the Butt.

Springborg might just grow into the job. At least he won't be parachuted into it like his opponent.

But all he really has to do to win in Brisbane is say to Brisbane people

'I won't make you drink your recycled pee'.

He'd win in a trot.

Not very often does a government get tossed out badly in an atmosphere of boredom. I see what your polls and these self-selected sample surveys are saying, but I (as a non-betting man!) think the betting shops are right. I reckon Labor will win the election.

Major changes of government in the past have happened if a government was shockingly on the nose - not just old - AND if the opposition has done hard yards in putting up a coherent and credible policy framework.

Springborg and the LNP have NOT done that. Indeed their economic "strategy" looks inappropriate. Cutting spending, and increasing uncertainty about job security, is not conducive to the sort of confidence that will mitigate a recession.

Most of the complaints against the State government come from the fact that resources are limited, while the State's population is growing very fast. If there's a change of government, I'll be amazed if Springborg and co. can do a better job. They might give some oil to the squeaky wheel here or there, but they won't sstdop new squeaky wheels appearing in other places - simply because there isn't enough money to fix all of them. Especially if they rabbit on about reducing taxes.

I'm too realistic to fall for that one.

In 2004, the Liberals pulled off a political miracle, bleeding off 2 points of popularity a week in seven weeks from Mark Latham: seven point deficit in the polls to a seven point win.
In 2007 KR, as a Christian, got the miracle for the Labor Party, that no atheist could deliver.

The Labor Party Government in Queensland from 1989, was dominated by atheist lawyers. In 1991 they made a naked lawyers power grab, and elevated their henchmen, Judges and Magistrates to be the idols of modern day Queensland. These God substitutes do the bidding of State Labor, and we got absolutely sick and tired of them in 1996, and tossed Goss out.

Unfortunately the lawyers had the LNP by the cohones, and when Borbidge proved to be just as bad as Goss, they put the lawyer Peter Beattie in, amid the chaos caused by Pauline Hanson. If anyone can get the money to make Queensland wealthy it will be the Borg. The Australian Labor Party has had the last twenty years with a small break for a pseudo Labor government to get it right and failed. They have now reduced themselves to overt thievery to pay their bills.

Talking of naked power grabs, if the Queensland Government makes the courts again comply with the Constitution of Australia after the election, they can take $165,000 a day from the Newspaper that violated the right to privacy of a certain red headed woman politician. For you lawyer types, the penalties are set out in the Crimes Act 1914 ( Cth) and a Commonwealth court can impose them. Of course the Insurance will pay for the damage, but the breach of Statute the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which guarantees privacy, should not be allowed to go unpunished. Max Mosely would not cop it in England, and nor should she.

This is where the Queensland Government has an enormous untapped revenues source, in the Qui Tam action so successfully used in the United States by Myra Breckonridge. All the laws are in place here to get the revenue flowing

Keith,

You say, "But all he [Springborg] really has to do to win in Brisbane is say to Brisbane people

'I won't make you drink your recycled pee'."

If he would add a few more, he'd go a long way to bringing democracy back to the State: (1) We will not force any Council to amalgamate. Back to the old boundaries if that is desired by the people; (2) I will not force any Queenslander to drink that toxin, fluoride; (3) We will quit the dictatorship (recycled pee and pooh; fluoride & Council amalgamations) and return genuine democracy to the State. (4) There will be no Traveston Dam.

The Queensland election does not really matter to some extent, if KR and Chris Bowen are fair dinkum. When PK introduced the National Competition Policy in 1995, it was the first thing the Federal Liberals did not pursue. The Liberal party branches in the Federal Court of Australia and High Court continued to fail to compete with the State courts, for business, and the State courts have consistently refused to apply the Trade Practices Act 1974 even though they can.

PK also passed the Criminal Code Act 1995 ( Cth) and in it defined every Australian who would take a police action in a magistrates court as a Commonwealth public official in the dictionary. It also defined every State Judge and Magistrate as a Commonwealth public official and in Part 7 it provides criminal sanctions to guarantee the proper administration of government.

The Notary Public was part of Christian law since 1533 when Henry VIII made their appointment the prerogative of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and in a play on words they are NOT A REPUBLIC. They represent the Queen and Her equitable jurisdiction, but have been made ineffective and under the control of the unelected lawyer government in Queensland since the abolition of the distinction between court and chambers in 1991 in the Supreme Court of Queensland Act 1991.

Chris Bowen proposes to make cartel conduct illegal, and a fine of $10 million dollars or ten percent of the annual revenue to be imposed for it. This will catch the legal cartel, and its super rich lawyer proprietors. It will catch the businesses called the Supreme Court in each State, and it will catch individual barristers who aid and abet the cartel conduct of the courts.

The cartel conduct of the Director of Public Prosecutions will have to end and the Director is probably going to lose his powers to take over and discontinue private prosecutions so the Police cartel can get some competition. So really what is happening in Canberra is really exciting. KR will lead a fantastic Commonwealth government if they carry out their anti cartel promises

If it was not for the pathetic TV political advertising and those poor (mostly elderly) people who sit on footpaths on deck chairs next to cheesy pictures of their local candidate - you would not know an election was on.

Clearly, this election has been a battle between 'nobodies'.

Nobody 1 is a Labor Minister who inherited the top job from someone who thought it would be cute to have a female Premier. It didn't work and I’m not being sexist. You’ve either “got it” or you haven’t and sadly it’s never been there at all.

Nobody 2 is a 40 year old urban hill billy who appears to believe that Queensland is badly run goat farm - and only he knows how to fix it. (don’t you worry about that -good gracious me!)

My prediction on the spread of the 89 seats is -

Labor: 44 seats

LNP 42 seats

Greens 2 seats

Independent 1 seat

Only in Queensland