In Queensland, the other year, Beattie chose his successor without any input from the electorate.

These days his successor as Premier needs the best part of 100 coppers to provide her security at a silly little regional cabinet meeting.
There really is something wrong with that picture.

An old song goes – “No way to treat a Lady; no way, no way -”

Trouble is that this ‘Lady, as CEO of Queensland, refuses to accept that, lately, she has become less popular than George W Bush and has compounded that by publicly stating that, more or less, she knows better than her party, her advisors and the majority of Queenslanders about how the state might progress by having a fair number of state utilities sold off to the highest bidder.

This author once prayed for the election of a Prime Minister from Queensland.
These days I can only bow my head in shame.
This author has become convinced that elections have become utterly useless as a means of choosing any fair-minded representative at any level of governance in Australia.
The bottom line is that whatever chookshed the chief rooster rules over in Australia remains no more than a chookshed!

Might anyone convince me otherwise?

We need a direct-election method of choosing EVERY person for EACH portfolio separately, completely independent of party alliegances:
For example, the Premier, treasurer, Ministers for Health, Education, Telecommunications, Transport, etc are all separate ministries to which we may vote a separate pool of candidates- meaning we could have a Labor Premier, Liberal Treasurer, Green Health Minister etc.

And EVERYONE, ANYWHERE in the state can pick any candidate- not just pick the best LOCAL representative on offer just to sit in parliament and have their actual job randomly designated later.

If Stalin was born in Australia, is this what he would sound like?
I'm sure he would agree that privatisation is bad and that elections are useless.

What are the alternatives to elections non-farmer?

Hey, Queensland.

Stop moaning about your government.

signed

NSW

Touché , pericles.

I used to complain that I had no shoes, until I met a man from NSW.

Pericles, thank for the "belly" laugh.

With all this rain, & now a good laugh, what more could an old bloke want.

I've been round quite a while, & I've seen some bad ones, but this crop top pollies take the cake. We have never had such a bunch of total bl00dy idiots before.

Hasbeen,
there speaks a one eyed zealot. I remember you lamented Joh's style of government. With all his government's cock ups , corruption and crime cronyism trampling of civil right of the many for the few. Oh yes did I mention the outrageous Gerrymander etc.
Yes things could be a lot worse the NSW govt or revamped Joh flip a coin.
I would suggest your expertise to judge is well....somewhat compromised.
Well it's certainly behind the 8 ball.

Examinator:
I would suggest that your comments directed at "hasbeen" have issued from your anal area!

You would need to have tasted the freedom and the prosperity enjoyed by most Queenslanders in years gone by to legitimize your ill-conceived comments.

Queensland once enjoyed the privilege of being referred to as "the best State in Australia"..... ( if somewhat old fashioned !). Queenslanders were a happy, carefree, friendly and helpful bunch of people.
Yes, we had our share of political "peculiarities" but it was a State noted for it`s cheap motoring fees, cost of living and cheap housing prices.

Unforunately, the pestilence struck the State in the name of the Labor Party. Beattie couldn`t wait to embark upon his campaign of destoying everything worthwhile, and then when the going got tough he jumped out, annointing his successor Anna Bligh, ensuring of course that she had a plum job lined up for the "master of idiotic grins".

The rot had already set well and truly in, with Beattie`s "forced" Local Amalgamation process in place, and his invitation to the "southlanders" to flock to to glorious Queensland, ignoring the fact that already the State was tottering under the weight of an overloaded Health system. From there we have suffered a rapidly decaying system of infrastructure, with general Healthcare and Hospital failure, struggling Energy supply, Water supply and a deteriorating rural road system.

This then is the legacy of a State Labor Government under Anna Bligh, who is herself embarking upon her own campaign of idiocy by selling off the State`s assets in her own pathetic attempt to stave off an inevitable Budget blow-out, aided and abetted by a Treasurer, who himself would be a failure at the boardgame of Monopoly!

I found the sheer arrogance of forcing the shire amalgamations on us, when the vast majority of citizens were clearly against it, absolutely unbelievable, but it gets worse.
I have just received my rates notice. I now have to pay almost 25% more, for an amalgamation that no one outside the Qld Labor party wanted.
I hold both major political persuasions accountable. If the opposition hadn't been such a lame duck, Labor might not have been so arrogant.
In the age of the internet, more direct input on the decisions our representatives make should not be such a big deal.
We shouldn't have to wait 3 years to sack a rep. or a government. The pollies have learnt to rely too heavily on short memories.

Grim:

Agree totally. My Rates have been increased by 30% annually ad infinitum.

This then is democracy Oz style in place today. This is the way in which these so-called "representatives of the people" are going to balance their Budgets in the future, by selling off the properties of those poor souls who simply cannot afford to pay their exorbitant Rates, which after all in some cases is simply rent on property that one has already paid for!

We receive NOTHING in the way of services via the Local Authorities, yet we have still have a 30% YEARLY Rates increase forced upon us.

Anyone with half an ounce of brain should now be able to understand why Australia has NOT got a Bill of Rights, and it is unlikely that we ever will get one, simply because it is too counter-productive to these self-styled gangsters who pose as Politicians!

Examinator, do you ever get anything right?

The "outrageous gerrymander" as you chose to call it, was designed, & introduced by the labor party. They did this when agriculture was labour intensive, & most of that labour voted labor.

I think it was the thing which annoyed them the most, that the cause of their long sojourn in the wilderness was one of their own "tricks" which backfired.

Compared to this lot, not only was old Joh a great manager, he was a saint.