As Mark pointed out in an earlier post, the mooted council amalgamations in Queensland are causing all sorts of local fear and loathing and threatened to spin out of control and into the Federal arena.
Today, the PM, heady with the scent of political capital garnered from micro managing a single Tasmanian hospital, has obliged by stepping into the fray and opened another front in the War On The States by pledging to support local Queensland councils in their opposition to those amalgamations.
PM backs councils in merger debate.
Mr Howard has announced the Government will pay for the Australian Electoral Commission to hold plebiscites for any council that wants one.
“I challenge the Premier of Queensland, let the people speak on your amalgamations proposal,” he said.
“Let the people of Queensland decide and let this be a reminder that if you remove the check and balance of this system, if you have Labor governments at every level, this sort of behaviour will become the norm.
“Within the limits of the constitution, we will do what we can to force the Queensland Government to consult the people of Queensland, to force the Queensland Government if necessary – to shame the Queensland Government into actually consulting the people of Queensland.”
Yesterday, hospitals in Tasmania. Today, councils in Queensland. Tomorrow dog catchers in New South Wales. Is it just me thinking that the PM has finally jumped the shark in his War On The States with this politically inspired intervention?
Phil, I’ve just heard Peter Beattie on PM. Today’s stories aren’t up yet but there should be transcript later tonight.
Beattie said Howard is using tax payers’ money to pay councils to engage in an illegal act. He’ll still fine people who organise plebiscites and the laws will be through by the end of the week.
There’s no upper house here, as people will recall.
No, I’m afraid I have to agree on this one. Right now Mr Howard seems to be a brawl looking for a bar-room.
I thought that the first tier of Government paying for an action by the third tier of Government was a bit dodgy and could be challenged by the second tier.
Oh, cause, Howards grubby fingers clutching again, sorry about that, silly me.
Hmmmmm……any chance Mr Howard will extend his sudden embrace of plebiscites to residents of remote communities to see if they want their permit system revoked?
It’s a bizarre one, because Rudd is opposed to the amalgamations. But I guess since Howard is now running against Beattie, Iemma, etc, he hopes to wedge the states. Whatevs. The guy is nuts.
I don’t see how the councils could conduct plebiscites in defiance of state law regardless of whether the AEC runs them at Howard’s expense. Expect this to end up in court, or splutter off into nothingness like everything else he’s done lately. Where’s the government’s consistent message? They’re a brain explosion a day at the moment.
Beattie’s Response:
I liked what Iemma said about Howard not being able to make up his mind which lie to campaign on.
Also Matt Price’s headline – Howard goes weird on wireless:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22199989-12854,00.html
Howard’s not even looking like a clever politician anymore, more like a totally desparate and irresponsible basket case.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe that local government is mentioned anywhere in the constitution, and is hence the sole preserve of the States’ residual power.
How many times does the Commonwealth have to violate the spirit of the constitution before the constitution itself starts to become an irrelevant artifact? Don’t get me wrong, I’m like Howard in that I’m not about to fetishize federalism and the constitution if it becomes a roadblock to genuinely necessary policy… but as long as he’s “letting the people decide”, maybe he should “let the people decide” whether the current constitution is worth having, or whether we should change it to reflect the kind of centralized Government that Howard is trying to make fait accompli on the sly?
I Wonder Howard will intervene in WA over Daylight Savinbgs Trials ?
The party’s state president Wendy Duncan says the motion, which will be debated at the conference in midwest Geraldton this weekend, reflects the strength of opposition to daylight saving.
“I think it indicates the feeling of disillusionment and disenfranchisement of people who have actively said they don’t want daylight saving in WA,” Ms Duncan said today.
“There are obviously issues of practicality and implementation, and I am not sure it will be carried, but this resolution comes from our grass roots and deserves debating.”
Ms Duncan agreed there was an “element of civil disobedience” to the motion, which calls for members to ignore daylight saving time.
“I guess it would be,” she said.
Note that there is no Liberal/Nationals CVoalition here in WA as the Nats withdrew after the last State Election and have no intention of reviving it in the future.
After all, there are parallels between what Beattie is doing re: councils, and what Howard is doing re: States… except Beattie is doing the unpopular thing for the sake of fiscal solvency and Howard is doing the populistic thing for the sake of stunt and pork.
Oh yeah,
jumped the shark, cartwheeled over the shark, backflipped over the maw of the Kraken, danced thru the minefields, pranced thru the mine fields …
It’s a delight. And not unlike one of those slow motion crashes seen in the movies where the the juggernaut is overtaken by its own momentum, and having missed the opportunity to change direction, accelerates at incredible speeds before crashing into a tiny ice-cube and breaking up in an enormous explosion.
If I get a piece of shrapnel after the crash I’ll gold plate it and mount it. Repeatedly. (A rolled gold opportunity)
Cliff,
100% agreed – contrast his statements today about the council issues with his comments on a referendum about taking over states’ responsibilities:
He’s totally freaking out at the moment – if it wasn’t our country being screwed with it would be hilarious to watch.
I’m outraged by the size of the licence fee I have to pay the Council for my dog.
If Mr Howard federalises dog licences in the City of Yarra, he’s got my vote.
The PM in action of late. Big air then the inevitable.
The newly amalgamated Caboolture, Redcliffe, And Pine Rivers. The jokes just write themselves.
‘Referenda to start with are very complicated difficult issues and the arguments often get lost”. Yeah he’d know, republic anyone?
I thought I read the other day that Rudd was going to look into the amalgamations?
Howard proposes to hold any referenda or plebescites at the same time as the election.
That won’t confuse anyone!
I hate Howard as much as the next person.
But for the life of me, I cannot understand how Howard was misunderstood on the polling part of the interview. Howard said the figures showed that Labour propaganda on him was working, especially the age issue and him beeing sneaky. Laws went on to claim it was Liberal polling. So what? Isn’t Liberal polling allowed to show the effects of Labour propaganda.
Of course, its a lie. But its not “weird”. If you follow me.
I don’t see where Howard can be faulted, other than it was a lie and people have known all along he was sneaky. If Labour has spent one penny trying to get the public aware that Johnny is sneaky, its been wasted.
However, as far as Howard being weird, he certainly wasn’t. He was just lying like he always does.
Howard was his usual self with Laws.
I just thought the headline was funny, in context. He was flailing around again on the 7 30 report tonight.
I think that this one was a direct response to how badly flogged the Libs were in Question time in State Parliament this morning. Anna Bligh absolutely cut the Member for Noosa off at the ankles with an exposure of a prodeveloper trying to pretend to have some sort of green credentials.
Howard must have thought that if these clowns were on his side then they need all the help they can get. It was probably the poorest effort by the Queensland rabble in the past ten years. See question time in today’s Hansard here.
I wonder how long it’s going to take before someone asks the PM if he would have done the same thing when Kennett was amalgamating councils in Victoria. (I can’t remember the exact chronology, was Howard in power at the time?)
The same people screaming for a referendum now are the same people opposing a referendum on purified recycled water a matter of months ago. Then they were telling Beattie just get on and make a decision because referendums are just an expensive waste of time and money.
Great performance from Nicola Roxon during Question Time.
Labor tried to embarrass the Government in parliamentary question time over Dr Nelson’s January 1991 statement, made while he was the Australian Medical Association’s (AMA) president.
Dr Nelson said the AMA supported the State Government’s plan to rationalise the northwest coast’s hospital services, as small hospitals would not be able to attract the specialists needed to provide the best care.
“(It) is the only way that Tasmanians in that area will be likely in the future to see modern, properly resourced hospital services in their area to match those in the rest of the state,” he said in an AMA press release.
Dr Nelson sat red-faced today as opposition health spokeswoman Nicola Roxon asked Mr Howard if he was right.
“On this occasion, no he wasn’t,” Mr Howard said.
“But he’s considerably improved with the opportunity and experience of being a member of my Government.”
And Tasmanian Liberal senator Stephen Parry allegedly criticised the plan to bail-out the hospital while in a Parliament House lift with journalists and a Labor staffer.
“It’s a disaster. It should be closed,” he reportedly said.
Senator Parry later said the comments had been “taken out of context”, but did not deny he made them.
“I am disappointed that the Labor Party has mischievously used a remark from a private conversation to achieve political mileage regarding the Mersey Community Hospital,” he said.
“I support the Government’s plans to deliver a sustainable,
safe and viable health system for the people of Tasmania”.
Anna Bligh in question time today.
Will Howard pay for a referendum on WorkChoices?
He’ll pay for a referendum on anything that is not created by him while ever he is caught between a piss poor Newspoll result and the threat of an interest rate rise.
Cliff – re the Constitution and local government. We should all reflect on how Opposition Leader John Howard campaigned up and down the land in 1987 to defeat four referenda – one of them to mention local government in the constitution.
Fozzie, Kennett forced amalgamation of councils in 1994 when I think Keating was PM.
But what is the level of opposition in Qld against amalgamations, esp. in the marginals?
Goss lost over a bypass didn’t he? Forget the niceties and tearing up of commonwealth/state relations and constitutions – is this going to swing votes back to Howard?
The problem is Labor needs to win 16 seats – Ratty only needs to lose 15 and he still wins……..
Has Howard got Braddon back by bribing the locals with a hospital, that can’t be staffed other than by Dr Haneef’s other cousins? Any polling available?
And why is Beattie throwing this up just before the Federal Poll? A person would think he wants Howard to stay in power….
People feel closer to their local council than any other level of Govt. They are more likely to know their local councillors, and often see them on a regular basis. They are more likely to feel attached to local govt infrastructure like the local library, town hall, senior citizens centre, childcare centre etc.
Whether or not in time, people will adapt, like they did in Victoria to mass council amalgamations for good or ill, (a state which is tiny geographically compared to QLD) is cold comfort to K. Rudd, Opposition Leader.
If Labor can’t win Qld, it can’t win.
Thank God for Workchoices! It’s the ballast keeping the ALP support afloat in very dangerous seas.
I wouldn’t be worried about it Jo. It’s the usual hard core Nats playing politics the way they always do. It will have no effect on anything Federally except to make Howard look sillier than he is already. The legislation is being debated this week and it is just a tory stunt that will go nowhere.
Are you sure Steve?
my sister drove down from Tewantin to march, she’ll still vote Kruddy, but she’s an ALP voter. In the marginals – you are talking about hundreds or a few thousands votes either way….
I don’t think that there would have been any action by Howard without his private polling showing a huge problem for the Libs in Queensland. That is the Federal problem he is trying to solve. He’s got no authority to even have a referendum just offer cash.
Is he offering the NT a referendum on who wants his intervention and where? Unfortunately for him he has the antimidas touch where everything he touches turns to dirt. This will be a one week wonder and if interest rates rise tomorrow, it’s all over no matter what he does or says.
The other thing to remember is that the AFP have sent a report on Printgate to the DPP in late June and up to three Libs could be charged any time soon. So the Libs really are struggling.
No doubt there will be minor effects but overall the Libs are in deep trouble and this is a kneejerk reaction to their problems.
jo, it was more than a bypass. It was an alternative highway to the Gold Coast to the east of the present one, which would have taken people directly down there from the airport, via, when it was planned, the multi-function polis (remember that?) in the cane country to the east of Beenleigh.
The road went through four marginal Labor electorates where there were also koala habitats. I vaguely remember an incident where dead koalas were produced at parliament house.
But the Goss mob had become quite arrogant and had upset a number of other constituencies. I remember the closing of railway lines being an issue.
To topple Beattie (or more likely his successor Anna Bligh) though the conservatives will have to make big inroads into the city vote, where the Libs have been hopeless and the amalgamations are irrelevant.
But like you I think Beattie’s caper could have an impact in seats Rudd needs to win. I don’t think Queenslanders are as sick of Howard as the rest of the country and many would worry about Labor at both levels.
I could be wrong, though.
Yes and no as to whether it will have any effect. I doubt that it’ll have much in Brisbane which as Brian says is exempt from the changes and where a lot of the seats Labor needs are. Noosa’s in a safe Liberal seat. Perhaps it makes Leichardt, Flynn and maybe Dickson and Petrie more difficult for Labor, but I’m not convinced, particularly since Rudd’s been taking out ads in local papers for some time signalling his opposition.
steve’s right in that it’s probably an assist to the state Libs who are looking more and more hopeless and whose total disarray is spreading to the federal sphere.
Here’s the Brisbane Times view.
A very Misleading Headline in the Courious Snail, ‘State to Vote on Amalgamations’.
‘State offered cash too Late for Amalgamations’ would have been a more honest attempt at a headline for this story. I think you will find that Howard will regret this stupidity somewhere along the line.
On interest rates, I tend to agree with steve. David Bassanese made an interesting point in the Fin review today.
He said that if we don’t get an interest rate rise tomorrow it will increase the chances of one closer to the election.
Be careful what you wish for, was his advice to the Libs.
btw, I thought Kezza failed to go for the jugular with Howard on the 7.30 Report. He should have made Howard explain why his budget which sprayed money everywhere to consumers was not inflationary while states borrowing to build infrastructure was.
On Tasmanian hospitals he accepted too readily that it was a good idea when he could have quoted expert opinion that Howard’s dopey ‘policy’ intervention would cost lives.
I hope you Quincelanders are right – Labor cant afford to haemorrhage any marginals – last week, it was harry quick & franklin, and then the braddon intervention, this week half of regional Qld is up in arms.
I wish I had Lefty E’s incredible optimism.
Brian, one other interesting snippet to come out of my reading of parliament this morning was that the Liberal Member for Kawana is so opposed to the amalgamation that he wants to be the Mayor of the new Sunshine Coast Supercouncil. Hard to take these people seriously, I’m afraid.
The Government Gazette gets technical.
August 07, 2007
PRIME Minister John Howard set a dangerous precedent by allowing referendums on council amalgamations, a local government legal expert says.
Mr Howard today told federal parliament the Australian Electoral Commission would be allowed to undertake plebiscites on the amalgamation of any local government body, overruling Premier Peter Beattie’s state Labor government.
The Queensland government today introduced draft laws which would overhaul the state’s local government boundaries, more than halving the number of councils from 156 to 72.
Ian Ellis-Jones, a senior lecturer in local government at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), said Mr Howard was meddling in what had traditionally been a state matter.
“Local government is created by state act of parliament, and it should be in my view,� Mr Ellis-Jones said today.
“It is a matter for the states to decide whether they want local government and what type of local government and how many councils and that sort of thing.
“That’s without getting into the argument about whether bigger local councils are better than smaller councils.â€?
There was a considerable body of evidence from both the United Kingdom and the United States that larger councils were not necessarily better or more efficient, Mr Ellis-Jones said.
Mr Howard had acted inappropriately, he said.
“I think it is an inappropriate use of federal power,� he said.
“I think it is creating a dangerous precedent and it goes against a long tradition of bipartisan support for the view that local government is a state matter and it’s entirely up to states to regulate it.â€?
I’m watching this from Budapest and it’s got me thinking that maybe the unthinkable might be possible: That the Rodent could lose? And I still have difficulty believing it. I figure he is going to do something completely incredibly sneaky and deceptive and people’s heads will explode and he’ll win another election.
But I agree that he is beginning to look just incredibly desperate. Why would Rudd put his head up if Howard is already committing hari kari at every possible opportunity?
Has he jumped the shark? Absolutely. And if the rude intervention in state affairs for political gain wasn’t so terrible it would be funny.
I wonder if war veterans are going to get a referendum into their treatment by the Howard Government.
Yesterday the opposition put out this statement:
ALAN GRIFFIN MP
Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs
Federal Member for Bruce
HOWARD GOVERNMENT MUST NOT ABANDON QUEENSLAND OR QUEENSLAND VETERANS
The Courier Mail reported today that the Government is secretly poised to wind back services for ex-personnel in Queensland and shift them to the southern states.
These reports are concerning as there are nearly 100,000 clients of DVA in Queensland, close to a quarter of all clients in Australia.
The government must not prioritise cost cutting over the needs of our veterans. In the past we have seen staff cuts at the same time as claims processing times have been blown out.
Yet again we appear to have this Government considering major reforms without discussing any of them with the ex-service community.
This unfortunately is typical of this Government’s approach to Veterans’ Affairs – After 11 years in power they have given up listening to the ex-service community. Instead all we hear now from Minister Billson is that Veterans have never been better off which just shows how much this Government has lost touch with the community on these issues.
We do need to see more detail of this Government proposal and we are not opposed to reforms that leave the ex-service community better off.
However, I am concerned about the impact for Queensland especially in relation to a possible decline in services, or quality of services, for Queensland Veterans.
I am also concerned about a decision made by the Canberra bureaucracy that will potentially result in the loss of jobs for departmental employees by early next year if the reports today are correct.
If the Government wants to wind back its Queensland services then it needs to consider:
· What the impacts on the Queensland ex-service community will be in terms of access and quality of services; and
· The impact on the Queensland economy from the proposed axing of jobs from the Department
Labor opposes any move to merge the Department of Veterans’ Affairs with any other Agency or Department. The Department deals with a specialised constituency and we would never support anything but its continued and independent operation.
http://www.theaussiedigger.com The Aussie Digger
http://theaussiedigger.com/TheAussieDiggerForum/index.php Forum
http://www.geckodot.net/tpivets/ TPI Campaign History
Veterans will encourage young Australians not to enlist
under current circumstances.
the Tassie Hospital, Queensland Councils and now “timber workers” in “NSW” – http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/07/1999125.htm?site=idx-act .
4 million for 4 months interesting timing
I,m buggered if I know,why on earth would you want more councils,just more bludgers leaching money,I know in Perth the Court Govt did away with the Perth City Councils area and split it into smaller Councils.
And what we ended up with was instead of 1 CEO we got about 7 all on a couple of hundred thousand a year,and heaps of other jobs that were done by one council,now done by 7.
I cant understand why anyone would want more Councils unless its a jobs for the boys thing in QLD,think I would rather the Brisbane Model for all its faults
The Brisbane model tends to work reasonably well, I think, though its main problem is a lack of community democracy at the suburban/neighbourhood level. That wouldn’t be impossible to incorporate in, though, and I think from memory the Greens have made some proposals along those lines.
Just a couple of points on this latest crazed intervention.
Being pedantic, the term “referendum” only applies to changing the Constitution under section 128. The term “plebiscite” should be used for any other poll of the people (like the flag plebiscite back in the Fraser years).
Secondly, plebiscites on local council amalgamations will have to be organised by each council in the first instance, before the AEC can come in and actually conduct the poll. Seems to me this is a recipe for disaster if they are to be coordinated on a single day (assuming the whole process does not fall down with legal challenges at the outset – a few strategic injunction applications might do the trick).
And finally, if multiple plebiscites are to be conducted on federal polling day, as I have seen some commentators suggest, then this will inevitably fall foul of section 394 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act, see here:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/cea1918233/s394.html
There are three Liberal State Members on the Sunsine Coast.Their positions are as follows:
The Member for Kawana wants to be Mayor of the Supercouncil.
The prodevelopment Member for Noosa opposes the Supercouncil because he wanted Noosa to maintain it’s Ideallic Green lifestyle until yesterday when he turned red. Now noone knows where he stands but it will be decided by plebiscite.
The Member for Caloundra wrote to the State Government demanding that an amalgamation of the three councils occur.
The Prime Minister wants a plebiscite which he calls a referendum, but has no power to call one, so he’ll get the taxpayers to pay for it if the councils want it. Mainly apparently to sort out where the Liberal state members stand on a set date.
The Queensland Liberals oppose amalgamation because the Nationals told them to oppose it and Beattie alleges in parliament that it is the price of a joint senate ticket with two Libs ahead of one National.
Confused? – just imagine what it would be like to be a Lib in Queensland!
Deal