BCC rates already have been- for years!

They’re twice what you pay in Melbourne. Now admittedly, the city-state provides some services left to State govt here, but still, its a good 50% higher.

The problem is the BCC pegged rates at a set fraction of property value - which once had a ‘progressive taxtion’ function (which I support), but since the boom just means everybody is getting ripped off left right and centre.

Here’s wacky idea BCC - why dont you peg it to the cost of providing council services, CPI style?

Peoples rates more than doubled under the % of value formula, in a time period in which when the actual costs of providing the services rose more no more than 15%.

Rip off!

The ALP are going to have to capture that anger and turn it into a desire for an alternative. What they’ve been offering recently is accquiescence. The ALP need to outline a strong agenda that will be build a sustainable Brisbane without breaking the bank.

Graham Young on why Campbell’s win shouldn’t give the Libs any comfort:

http://qlddecides.com/Latest/Newman-s-victory-one-for-Campbell.html

Labor ‘campaign’ - are you ‘avin’ a larf?

Newman’s bluff and blather goes unchallenged.

Wonder if Clem Jones is spinning in his grave.

Rather off topic, but Clem Jones was a serious player in the republic referendum, for the direct election of a president. I imagine his experience as mayor of Brisbane, firstly as a ward councillor and majority leader and later as a city-wide mayoral candidate was part of that. Joh made the vote for mayor separate in an attempt to get rid of Jones.

Beattie was right to hold his nerve!

God bless Antony Green and the ECQ.

Amen to that, Down and Out.

But - as I’m saying - where’s the media? I was thinking of going to an election night party tonight but I figured it’d be less depressing to sit in front of the computer with a six-pack! And it would have been impossible to follow the count except via the net.

I’m five beers down, so I won’t look for the link - but I thoroughly agree with what Jason Wilson said on an earlier post about the Qld local gov’t elections - have the media just decided it’s too hard to cover local elections? Too boring? Pffft to that. Elections matter.

I had the idea at about 4pm, when I caught up with some friends in West End for a drink and some tapas after voting that we should have approached 4zzz to do some radio coverage of the count. Wish I’d thought of it sooner - because it would have been the only non-net live coverage of the elections!

The performance of the MSM in reporting what was an important election has been pathetic. Even if it was an uninspiring campaign, they should be covering it.

And what’s this?

His main protagonist, Labor leader in council and deputy mayor David Hinchliffe was fighting for his Central ward after a fierce contest with Greens candidate Anne Boccabella.

Whatevs, Courier-Mail journo.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23376890-952,00.html

Hinchliffe is in trouble because of a big swing to his Liberal opponent, Vicki Howard!

http://www.abc.net.au/elections/brisbane/2008/guide/cent.htm

Note the primaries. Greens up 0.9% on last time. Liberals up 6.7%. Labor down 7.3%.

And a Socialist Alliance candidate with 1.9% - where there was no similar candidate last time.

Doesn’t look to me like Hinchliffe lost votes to the Greens, but to the Libs.

God bless Antony Green and the ECQ.

Remember the old saying, “be careful what you wish for”.

Scorpio, we crossed comments, but I’m thinking along the same lines! In effect, the Libs and ALP were development as usual party, with a fair bit of restraint from having Labor in the show. If it’s now crazy roads and tunnels everywhere and mega development, then I think you’re spot on - he’ll regret having got what he wanted. The lines of responsibility are also clear, and there’s every chance the Libs (not exactly famous in Qld for their smarts) will stuff up badly.

Another update: I missed this, because I was following Antony’s live blogging and checking the ECQ count on the web, but there’s a comprehensive post and a lively thread at The Poll Bludger.

There’s a natural Labor majority in Brisbane, but Labor dropped the ball badly. They ran a pathetic campaign. Big swing against Milton Dick - former state secretary - in what used to be yellow dog ALP territory in Richlands. But then the last few state and federal campaigns have effectively been outsourced to Hawker Britton!

Labor more or less conceded the Mayoralty, and their co-existence with the Libs in the Civic Cabinet meant that they couldn’t define an alternative agenda to Newman’s, having signed off on a lot of what he wanted.

It shouldn’t have been impossible to beat or at least put a dent in Newman’s lead.

This is a post I put up on PB earlier. I’m interested in your opinion of my critique.

Remember the old saying, “be careful what you wish for”.

If the Libs get up with a bare majority in Brisbane City Council, then “Can-Do” may well live to regret it and feel like his next 4 years are being spent in Purgatory!

At least with a majority Cabinet consisting of experienced Labor Councillors, he was able to get most of his program through without much difficulty.

If Can-Do now has to appoint an inexperienced Cabinet with the certainty of many of them belonging to differing factions, then he may well find that the previous arrangement was a piece of cake once the Lib Factional Warlords and their range of vested interests start to take over the running of the Council.

Cheers, Scorpio.

The electors in the various Wards may also come to regret their decision to give the Libs a go. This mob will not be running things for the benefit of ordinary citizens. They will be running it for the benefit of the big end of town.

http://www.ecq.qld.gov.au/elections/local/lg2008/BrisbaneCity/results/Mayoral/summary.html#5

Just had an update from one of my FB friends whose mum is a Labor Councillor - he thinks the ALP should have liberated themselves from Newman’s vice like grip two years ago and left their jobs in Civic Cabinet and been a proper Opposition. Makes a lot of sense.

I’m not sure if people outside Brisbane realise we had the very weird situation with the ALP having a majority not just on Council, but in Civic Cabinet. Because Council is so big, effectively the Chairs of Council Committees function like Ministers.

At least the lines will be drawn clearly now with Labor in opposition. Hopefully they can reinvigorate themselves and come up with some “fresh thinking”!

I like “branch Kevinians”!

Going back to the swings to Labor, looks like Pullenvale wasn’t a final number. The other swing to Labor turns out to be in Wynnum-Manly where Liberal Ross Vasta was trying to enter Council after being kicked out by the forces of Kevin07 from the federal seat of Bonner last year.

http://www.abc.net.au/elections/brisbane/2008/guide/wynn.htm

Whereas the do-nothing East Brisbane cum Holland Park councillor, also in Kev’s seat of Griffith, has copped a big swing against her. Despite her rather transparent efforts in the last week to associate herself with Big Kev. Thanks to our MP’s workaholicism, us Branch Kevinians have an expectation of high performance from our elected representatives.