Many that contribute to this forum will remember at the peak of the GFC the American car company executives flying into Washington on their private jets crying poverty.

We are all aware of Mini-Me Campbell Newman austerity in Queensland. There is no doubt there is a requirement to be more frugal with public money. To this end his government who received less than 50% of the primary vote has been exercising his disproportionate 80% plus power claiming he is to achieving this outcome. A lot Queenslander’s have had to do it hard.

He flew down to the recent COAG meeting in the Queensland government’s private jet and complained that his state couldn’t afford the federal government’s education initiatives.

Something is not right.

http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/queensland-ministers-clock-142-hours-government-je/1660206/

It is about to get far worse, date?
14/9/2013.
But in a way, do not ignore unfortunate truths, wse do it to our selves.
Well those we trusted did.

I don't know if you did any arithmetic at school Producer, if you did, you damn know well what a pile of typical Labor spin your post & your reference really are.

This will appeal only to the rusted on, & will reinforce the turn off those who are sick of spin & lies.

Producer,
I can offer you some advise based on hard evidence here. If you think that's a lot of flying then you really haven't a clue. Go & sit at any airport for a day & count how many bureaucrats collect their frequent flyer points from public service flights to remote communities where they achieve absolutely nothing. On the contrary, their frequent flyer points are causing a lot of expensive social & other damage. Then check of which political alliance these frequent flyers are before you target a Premier who needs to sort out that alliance's fiscal & social immoral mess. This really is a case of the kettle calling the pot black.

Hasbeen - My source is the electoral office. At election time with the current system delivered 88% of the seats to the LNP party with slightly less than 50% of the primary vote. A proportional system would have Labour 24, LNP 44, Greens 7, KAP 10, Others 4 seats. I said 80% plus due to LNP defections.

Individual – I agree with much of what you say. You must agree that the huge expense of an unnecessary private jet in light of Mini-Me lead austerity in Queensland is hypocritical. The jet was around when labour was in power but because the austerity wasn’t it gets them off the hypocrisy hook but not the expense. Perhaps it should have sold it before QR?

<< Something is not right. >>

Agreed Producer, it certainly seems a might hypocritical.

I don’t understand why the COAG meeting, and just about all meetings for which our pollies jump into these jets to attend, can’t be held via teleconference.

I agree with Newman’s efforts to bring Queensland back into the black, although maybe not as quickly and vehemently as he is in some sectors. But an essential part of this process is surely for him and his team to be seen to be exercising the most frugal and efficient use of energy, resources and money, in every way that they can.

Producer,
I always see things in a light of accountability & integrity. When I point my finger at someone I keep in mind if I could uphold the values I expect from someone else. Sadly, I witness too much lack of accountability & integrity from the bureaucrats that surround me on a daily basis. I see even less competence. Where I do see an increase is in the ego of those in authority & in the wasting of our tax dollars.
Now, you say the Qld Premier is doing too much flying. He HAS to ! How else do you expect him to assess the disaster areas of the Labor years ? Sell the Government Jet ? Replace it with what ?
At least the Premier is repairing huge damage. What do we get in return or value from our ex Parliamentarians on whom we spend massive amounts of tax payer dollars.
Start looking at the situation from the right instead of the left perspective & you might even comprehend what's going on.
If you think the Qld Premier has a case to answer then you'd better ask his predecessors first & have them explain why their successor is flat out repairing their unacceptable mess.

I was about to make a contribution to this discussion when I read yours Individual and realised I couldn't have put it better.

Individual – You got off to a great start in your first paragraph and I agree with you 100%

Then you said - Now, you say the Qld Premier is doing too much flying.

If there one thing I hate, it’s being verballed. Nowhere did I say or imply this.

I said – “He flew down to the recent COAG meeting in the Queensland government’s private jet and complained that his state couldn’t afford the federal government’s education initiatives. Something is not right.”

It would seem your first paragraph does not apply to Mini-Me Newman.

“I always see things in a light of accountability & integrity. When I point my finger at someone I keep in mind if I could uphold the values I expect from someone else. Sadly, I witness too much lack of accountability & integrity from the bureaucrats that surround me on a daily basis. I see even less competence. Where I do see an increase is in the ego of those in authority & in the wasting of our tax dollars.”

You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Would not you agree Snake?

How Else? As Ludwig suggested teleconference or catch a plane like everybody else or within Queensland drive. That way he can feel the road and visit communities that don’t have airstrips.

Hasbeen – Have you checked out the maths?

say or imply this.
producer,
Forgive me but why draw attention to that link which obviously is about too much flying or rather the expense of it when you don't actually disapprove of it ? It certainly looked to me
as a gripe about too much use of the plane.
You refer to the Premier not supporting the PM's education initiatives as something's not right. You're right there after the PM authorised $500 million to religious schools to our neighbour.
re "your first paragraph does not apply to Mini-Me Newman". Right again. it refers to the bureaucrats in the qld public service who are staunch Labor & will do everything they can to thwart the Premier's attempt to fix the state this State is in.

Producer you bitch about a few bucks worth of jet fuel, which would have saved hundreds of staff hours, then promote billions to be wasted in a fool gesture to buy a few education union, & a few uninformed general public votes. Now that's arithmetic at it's simplest. Hell you don't even have to be able to add to understand that.

When it comes to government aircraft, I do recall that Goss got rid of Joh's old aircraft, only to buy himself a much more exotic & expensive replacement.

Of course if I want to get nasty I could talk about a fat fool premier who used the thing to fly to the football, but that wouldn't be cricket, now would it

Dear Producer,

Your reference to Newman as Mini-Me is clearly intended as a dig at our new premier. Your proselityzation of the ALP mantra against Newman is another dead give away.

If you are a Queenslander, may I remind you that we have already decided to award the ALP 7 seats and the LNP 70 seats, it’s called democracy. You can either suck it up sweetie or move to Tasmania. If you are not a Queenslander, butt out.

Why on earth Campbell Newman ever had the good grace to not de-register the ALP in Queensland I don’t know because people like you don’t understand good grace.

As I posted on OLO the day after our election;

<< Brisbane train station was a very busy place last night.

There was the early departure of the 8:15 pm ALP special, containing the entire ALP contingent of about seven MP’s. They were accompanied by zero Greens MP’s who had successfully managed to drive their support base to something less than zero. The departure board showed this train’s destination was “political oblivion” and all passengers appear to have one way tickets.>>

[Deleted for abuse.] Instead of picking away at the very person who gave you by his political good grace, a party in Queensland you could continue to support.

It seems that gratitude, hypocrisy and embarrassment are not in your genes. But we already knew that because you are just another left leaning political toady without cognitive skills, just an adopter of someone else’s opinion.

My very best wishes to you for September 14th.

May you rest in peace from September 15th

Spindoc – Name suits you! You might even make a living from it if the use your words were (in your words) less caustic.

Clearly the democratic concept of one vote one value has no sway with you.

Clearly you haven’t taken the time to look at some of my previous posts. If you had you would realise politically I have two eyes, two arms and two legs and they are on opposing sides of my body and they all work.

The sooner we are rid of state governments and have a national proportional system where no one has absolute power with less than 50% of the primary vote the better.

Whatever way you spin it Mini-Me Newman and the LNP was not wanted by over (although only slightly) 50% of Queenslanders. The LNP with over 80% of seats is not democracy!

I think it would be a safe bet you are not one of the individuals that have been affected by his government’s austerity. I wonder if they are full of grace.

Individual – I am a bit of a Rabbott. If I mean it I will write it down. If I haven’t written it I didn’t write it. Don’t verbal me.

Hasbeen – If it’s only a few bucks in fuel perhaps you could pay for it. Then you get stuck into other examples of excess and waste (which I agree with) that make nonsense of your original logic. If it was just a few bucks of fuel why not take it to the footy?

Producer,
You're no Rabbott, if that's all you can write !

Dear Producer,

You clearly have some difficulty with the concept of reality. You make a case based upon your preferred version of democracy rather than what is real.

The system in Queensland is what actually exists; it serves little purpose for you to assert that it shouldn’t exist and that your preferences are better.

You say << Clearly the democratic concept of one vote one value has no sway with you>>

Rubbish, I’m not trying to change anything, you are.

I don’t know how you run your personal finances but I imagine that if you had spent all your cash, maxed out your credit card and had forward fixed expenses that were less then your income, you would simply get another credit card?

This is different for financial realists rather than vocal dreamers. They would typically impose some self discipline or austerity. They would do this because they would recognize that they had cocked things up, overspent, over committed and over borrowed.

Profligacy is the “cause” of “austerity”. You may see value in government continuing to spend other people’s money and to borrow your way out of debt; most Queenslanders don’t wish to see our children and grandchildren bearing the legacy of government debt and economic austerity. It needs fixing by our generation because we caused it.

It is weak, ideological, unrealistic and downright wicked to flick our stuff up’s to the next generations to solve.

You say <<Clearly you haven’t taken the time to look at some of my previous posts. If you had you would realize politically I have two eyes, two arms and two legs and they are on opposing sides of my body and they all work>>.

Producer, In political terms this is hypocrisy, in biological terms it’s called schizophrenia.

Producer, it’s your thread, you defend it, but just in case you decide to revisit your own thread, I offer the following, otherwise you could be declared persona non gratis.

Your description of the symmetry of your body parts is interesting but seems intended to imply political balance. However, by pointing to Newman and suggesting he is a hypocrite is hypocritical of you and a distraction away from the ALP who caused it in the first place. It’s called reflective angst.

You accuse Newman of spending too much whilst imposing austerity and completely ignore the fact that it was an ALP government applying “WayneOmics” in Queensland that got us into this mess in the first place.

My point is that of course we could avoid “our” austerity by deferring it for future generations to deal with. Why is it so difficult to stand face to face with reality and tell yourself that prevention is always less painful than the cure?

When you have spent all our generations’ money you now want to mortgage our kid’s future, selfish git.

Spindoc – Aren’t you a grumpy little vegemite! With all this spinning you must also be getting very dizzy.

I draw your attention to the comment I made at the start of this thread:

“We are all aware of Mini-Me Campbell Newman austerity in Queensland. There is no doubt there is a requirement to be more frugal with public money.”

You see I support Mini-Me being frugal. I do agree with you that if the credit card is max out, your over committed, over borrowed etc. etc. you need to reduce spending and pay debt.

Why then is Mini-Me lead government continuing to pay for maintain and use a private jet when there are options that are hugely, massively, extremely cheaper. You must admit it is a tad hypocritical.

P.S.

I have just noticed another post from you whilst preparing the above. Sorry I didn’t respond earlier but I have been out producing stuff so as to make a living.

The only thing if feel I need to add is, yes the red team has done some dump things as well. The sooner we move to a proportional system the better.

I don’t wish to open another can of worms as you do have a habit of spinning of subject.

Doesn’t the acceptance of royalties from the coal and gas sectors to reduce debt encourage the sector and promote global warming. Wouldn’t it be ironic if future generations were debt free but the planet was stuffed?

Spin that one Doc.

Producer,

It took a while but we got there in the end.

<< Doesn’t the acceptance of royalties from the coal and gas sectors to reduce debt encourage the sector and promote global warming>>

So much for your anatomical description of centrist, another warmer.

Producer you miss the point entirely. Even minor state premiers do not travel alone. To do their job at COAG they need a host of department people, with all the necessary paper work.

I suppose they could all catch Qantas, & take an extra day for the job, that is why I mentioned saving heaps of bureaucrats time & money. The cost of flying them all on commercial flights, & accommodation would far exceed the cost of the government aircraft.

So it is not just the cost fuel, but the cost of all the rest.

A fat slob flying to the football was pure cost, with no redeeming value what so ever. With that fool, the longer he was away, the less of our money he would waste.

Hasbeen - The point you highlight is not lost on me. Although I acknowledge Mini does travel with an entourage (some necessary, some not so), the private jet is still wildly more expensive than the public airline option.

Then as Ludwig correctly pointed out there is the teleconferencing (I would suggest video conferencing) which would save most if not all the expenses you highlight. I’m not suggesting that from time to time face to face is a more desirable option, particularly the leaders. That type of face to face does not warrant a private jet especially during austerity. The hypocrisy is not the jet itself; it is the jet and associated large range of large cost at the time of austerity.

We also have to consider, Spindoc does not want to pass on consequences that effect future generations. The jet delivers greenhouse gasses to the precise area in the atmosphere where they do the most damage. Where is Spinner by the way, I thought he would be right back at me with his/her vitriol.

With all due respect, Hasbeen I will leave the footy thing for another debate.

Dear Producer,

What is going on in Queensland sounds horrific but we are not having the best of time in Victoria either. The Liberal lot have come in, delivered the first state deficit since Kennett, blown out hospital waiting times by 20%, changed leaders, , decimated TAFE and just basically vandalised the place. Now their 'fiscal management'/ideology deems that they can't make the decision to take advantage of a scheme that will net them 2 dollars for every one they invest in our state school system. This is money that is sorely needed and is part of what a State government is tasked by the people to manage.

Their latest big push? To introduce gold prospecting in our National Parks (while it should be noted, stripping pest control budgets by 90%) since this was an election commitment.

I had my issues with the Brumby government but hell, this lot are worse than amateurish.

And this is my fear for the Federal government. I watched Q&A the other night with Tanya Plibersek vs Peter Dutton. I'm sorry but only the most jaundiced mind would put Dutton within a bull's roar of the capability of Plibersek. Hockey over Swann? Bishop over Carr? Nope. Some of the other match ups are closer but not enough to inspire any great confidence.

Damn we could well be in for a rough trot.

Morning csteele,

It seems odd to me that you have such a negative view of what is going on in Queensland?

I don’t know what happens to news of our political sentiment when it leaves QLD and eventually arrives in VIC. Well actually I do, just Google Newman to see just how much bile the media is throwing up.

You say << What is going on in Queensland sounds horrific >> If you were basing that comment on the polling of ALP supporters you would be quite right, 80% of whom are appalled at what is going on.

On the other hand 77% of LNP supporters are quite happy with the way things are going up here. The LNP has lost some support with the TPP running at 43 to 57 which is in spite of all the nasty decisions the LNP has had to make. In our view the worst is over for the LNP. Even if there is no change for the better the ALP will remain in the wilderness for a very long time.

The ALP VIC and FEDS on the other hand have their own problems as you point out. With a 10% drop in the polls, ALP supporters in VIC would do well to focus on saving your own skins rather than to try to bounce the dead ALP cat in Queensland.

Csteel – I don’t think Victoria or Queensland is the only state having a rough trot. I believe it is an Australia wide phenomenon. I think the old DIY ethic is not as strong as it used to be and the average punter believes that government owes him something. The sad thing is the punter has lost sight of the fact they are collectively the government.

There is a case for austerity but it would seem those in power do not have the ability to apply it to themselves. The big end of town also seems to be immune as well.

The main reason I started this thread was to highlight just that.

One factor and I believe that contributes, we do not enjoy proportional representation. Mini-Me and his mob rule Queensland with less than 50% of the primary vote.

Old spinner says that 77% of LNP supporters are quite happy with Mini. If less than 50% (I reckon that dropped off) supported the LNP at the last election what Spinner is saying is that only 38% of Queenslanders support what Mini is doing now. I reckon Spindoc is about right and this I believe this phenomena is not restricted to Queensland. Our parliament should be representative and inclusive not polarised as it is now!

I initiated a thread last year on proportional representation. It was a good discussion and was happy with the way it went.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=5047#135441

I hope Bob and Clive’s parties along with the greens and some independents can hang the next election. I agree with you Rabbott and his mob does not inspire any great confidence.