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Darren E
Joined: 04 May 2006
Posts: 2075
Location: Dagun, Qld
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 Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:57 am Post subject: It is on! |
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Courier Mail
Monday 23rd February 2009
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25093194-3102,00.html
| Quote: | Anna Bligh calls election for March 21
PREMIER Anna Bligh is on her way to the first press conference of the 2009 election campaign after formally asking Governor Penny Wensley to dissolve Parliament.
She visited the Governor at 11am to advise her she was calling a general election for March 21
As she left Government House to return to the Executive Building for a noon press conference, Ms Bligh said the decision to go to the polls was a "very important decision for Queensland".
At a press conference later, she said the campaign would be one of the lowest spending given the state of the economy and called for responsible policy.
Ms Bligh has repeatedly stated she intended to go full term – which would have meant an election in September.
But speculation has been growing that she would instead go early after Labor began airing attack ads against Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg, rushed to fill vacancies caused by retiring MPs, the Premier launched a new website and tried to put a lid on damaging electoral issues including furore over the new Queensland Children's Hospital.
Labor currently holds 58 of the 89 seats in Parliament, the Liberal National Party holds 25, there is one MP from both the Greens and One Nation and four Independents.
To take power, the LNP needs to win an extra 21 seats because Stuart Copeland's seat of Cunningham has been scrapped in the recent redistribution.
It will be LNP Leader Lawrence Springborg's third attempt at becoming Premier, while if Labor retains power, Ms Bligh will become Australia's first female premier to be elected by the people after she inherited the job from Peter Beattie 17 months ago.
Calling the election today will result in a 27-day campaign, one day longer than the usual minimum 26-day campaign favoured by her predecessor. |
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"If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything" - anon.
"There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies" - Walter Lippman |
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Darren E
Joined: 04 May 2006
Posts: 2075
Location: Dagun, Qld
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| Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 4:04 am Post subject: |
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Oh, and the stated reason for breaking her promise of going full term - all the speculation over the election date. 
_________________
"If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything" - anon.
"There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies" - Walter Lippman |
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stevem
Joined: 04 May 2006
Posts: 814
Location: Ridgewood
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| Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 4:13 am Post subject: |
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Interesting times ahead for QLD and anti Traveston campaigners.
An elected Springborg LNP government on the 21 March in will finally put an end to the flawed Traveston project.
I will be interested to see how much of Rudd's stimulus (pork barrel?) package will now be directed towards QLD, particularly for job creation and infrastructure projects (did I mention Traveston?).
Voters will be asked if the LNP can do any better, in these troubled financial times. Are we better off sticking with the devil we know?
The ALP's track record, in health, roads, schools, infrastructure, fiscal management and the environment, without mentioning the assorted ministerial scandals, is now up for the public's evaluation. I ask could they, the LNP, do any worse? Maybe a new Springborg broom, and a 3-year probationary trial till the next election, will not only revitalise QLD but it may clear out the dead wood in the ALP.
In what may prove to be a very tight election, preference deals in a few seats may be crucial to the final outcome. I guess I will not be the only person in the Mary Valley watching the Greens' "wheeling and dealings" with interest. |
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westholme
Joined: 02 May 2006
Posts: 2628
Location: Amamoor
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| Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 7:48 am Post subject: |
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Come on Greens. Don't let the creatures of the Mary River and environs down. NO TRAVESTON!! Please do not barter with the ALP and let the valley and river float out to sea like you did in the last election with Wild Rivers (which ALP broke promises on anyway). Don't preference ALP......tell them you are sick of being a preference machine. Run with your own policies! Run on your own!
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CESARE LOMBROSO "The ignorant man always adores what he cannot understand" |
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stevem
Joined: 04 May 2006
Posts: 814
Location: Ridgewood
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| Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:19 pm Post subject: |
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Major parties to court Greens
Sean Parnell, Queensland political reporter
February 24, 2009
Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25097841-5006786,00.html
| Quote: | THE Greens are expecting overtures from the major parties, desperate for their preferences, as the environment looms as a forgotten election issue.
Having previously vowed not to give preferences to Labor, the Greens issued a statement yesterday acknowledging their preferences would be vital to the outcome of the March 21 election.
Party officials from Labor and the Liberal National Party expect to enter into preference negotiations as the campaign progresses, and Premier Anna Bligh made an early bid for the Greens' support yesterday, saying her Government had some of the most significant environmental policies in Queensland's history.
The state's only Greens MP, Labor defector Ronan Lee, criticised Ms Bligh for going to the polls six months early, saying the Government had yet to deal with the economic slowdown and had not implemented its last election promises.
"The Premier is hoping to sneak back into government with an election held before unemployment becomes a major issue and her Government's weaknesses are exposed," Mr Lee said.
"She also promised to protect the Great Barrier Reef, list many wilderness rivers, stop the broad-scale tree-clearing that is still occurring and many other environmental reforms, none of which have been done."
Mr Lee, whose defection has helped lift the party's profile and who has at times been assisted by federal Greens leader Bob Brown, predicted the 27-day campaign would be the party's most successful.
Describing the Greens as "a strong, coherent, progressive alternative", Mr Lee said the party could retain his seat of Indooroopilly and win several others.
"We have the policies to place the Queensland economy on a 21st century footing so that we are not so dependent on the mining sector and to promote green jobs everywhere," Mr Lee said.
It remains to be seen whether the Greens will seek to capitalise on the Government's borrow-for-building program, which looms as a key election issue and in some areas may have environmental consequences.
Emissions trading and Queensland's heavy reliance on the coal industry have also yet to become a state campaign issue.
Support for the Greens in opinion polls has fluctuated wildly this term, from a low of 6 per cent to an all-time high of 10 per cent.
The latest Newspoll, conducted exclusively for The Australian in January and February, found 7 per cent support for the Greens, a two-point drop in six months. |
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stevem
Joined: 04 May 2006
Posts: 814
Location: Ridgewood
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| Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:23 pm Post subject: |
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These are the links to the TravestonSwamp forum discussion on Green preferences, before the 2006 QLD state election:
http://travestonswamp.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=708
http://travestonswamp.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1066
Also the eventual Green preference deals which helped re-elect the Beattie government in 2006:-
| Quote: | Electorates where Greens have preferenced Labor either 1 or 2. The only two that are on record as being anti Traveston Dam are Independents, Peter Wellington and Rae Gate.
1.Aspley 2,
2. Barron River 1,
3.Cairns 1,
4.Chatsworth 1,
5.Clayfield 1,
6.Cook 1,
7.Greenslopes 2,
8.Gympie 1 Rae Gate (Ind),
9.Hervey Bay 1,
10.Indooroopilly 1,
11.Kurwongbah 1,
12.Nicklin 1 Peter Wellington (Ind)
13.Maroochydore 1,
14.Maryborough 1,
15.Mt Ommaney 1
16.Springwood 2,
17.Toowoomba 1,
18.Woodridge 1 |
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westholme
Joined: 02 May 2006
Posts: 2628
Location: Amamoor
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| Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 7:12 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Corridor of power lies in the southeast
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25097844-5013945,00.html
Andrew Fraser | February 24, 2009
Article from: The Australian
QUEENSLAND'S history of elections being fought in rural and regional areas will be overturned in the March 21 election, which will be won or lost in the state's southeast.
A combination of an electoral gerrymander until the 1990s and decentralisation meant rural and regional seats dictated election outcomes in Queensland during the time of Joh Bjelke-Petersen until the recent redistribution.
But last year's redistribution, based on the rapid population growth in the southeast, created three new seats in the area at the expense of rural Queensland.
The redistribution has effectively abolished or combined seats in north Queensland, central Queensland and the Darling Downs, and created seats in the growth corridors between Brisbane and the Gold and Sunshine coasts, as well as one on the Sunshine Coast.
In the former parliament, the ALP had 58 seats, the Greens one, while there were five independents and 25 Liberal National Party members, 16 of these being former Nats and nine former Libs.
The redistribution has favoured the ALP, so that notionally it holds 63 of the 89 seats, while the LNP has 22 and there are four independents.
University of Sunshine Coast academic Scott Prasser pointed out that the LNP held only two of the 34 seats in and around Brisbane, and this was where it needed to make inroads.
But he said the LNP faced big problems in trying to break into the southeast while it was led by Lawrence Springborg, who was clearly a rural representative.
"The LNP need urban credibility, but that's very difficult when the party is obviously dominated by the old National Party," Dr Prasser said.
"The further problem is that the Liberal Party hasn't done well in southeast Queensland for years. When Joh Bjelke-Petersen won power in his own right in 1983, the Nationals then took a lot of Brisbane seats off the Liberals, and they've never got them back."
In the central Brisbane area, the LNP needs to pick up Chatsworth (0.4 per cent), Aspley (3 per cent) and Indooroopilly (2.5 per cent).
On the northern outskirts of Brisbane, the LNP has a good chance of winning the new seat of Glass House (0.3 per cent) and possibly Pumicestone (5.5 per cent), where the ALP sitting member, Carryn Sullivan, is the wife of the federal member for the area, Jon Sullivan.
On the southern and eastern extremities of Brisbane, the LNP is targeting Cleveland (1.3 per cent) as its best chance.
On the Sunshine Coast, the ALP lost the two seats it held in 2006 because of its proposal to build the Traveston Dam, so there is no room for LNP gains here.
The Gold Coast offers the Opposition more potential for gains, with its best chances in Mudgereeba (2.7 per cent) and Gaven (3.1 per cent), where sitting ALP member Phil Gray has made himself unpopular by threatening legal action against constituents who made negative comments about him.
Hervey Bay, just outside southeast Queensland, is a marginal ALP seat, and the LNP needs a swing of only 1.8 per cent to unseat Sustainability Minister Andrew McNamara.
The other seat close to the southeast is Toowoomba North, held by Attorney-General Kerry Shine by a margin of 7.6 per cent.
Outside of this area, the only seat the LNP should be able to take off the ALP is Whitsunday, which is held by Jan Jarratt with a margin of only 0.1 per cent.
After that, the LNP needs substantial swings to win seats in central and north Queensland.
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| Quote: | Twelve seats to watch
Brisbane Times
February 23, 2009 - 12:54PM
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/twelve-seats-to-watch/2009/02/23/1235237524513.html
Key Queensland seats profiles for the March 21 election:
Seat: Mudgeeraba
Member, margin: Dianne Reilly, Labor, 2.7 per cent (Labor)
Location: Gold Coast hinterland
Voters: 32,498
Seat history: The seat was a Liberal stronghold until a redistribution in 2001 saw former freelance journalist and public relations consultant Dianne Reilly snatch the seat for Labor in a massive 18.4 per cent swing. She has held the seat ever since and is this year again up against experienced nurse Ros Bates.
Issues: The LNP is likely to campaign strongly on Queensland's health service problems, promising to increase services at the Gold Coast and Robina hospitals.
Expectation: A possible LNP win.
Point of interest: More than half of voters lived at a different address five years ago.
Seat: Gaven
Member, margin: Phil Gray, Labor, 3.2 per cent (Labor)
Location: Northern Gold Coast
Voters: 36,349
Seat history: The seat has changed between Labor and Liberal MPs three times since the seat was carved out in a redistribution before the 2001 election. The Liberal Party took the seat in a by-election in early 2006 with the resignation of sitting Labor MP Robert Poole, who was dubbed the "Member for Thailand" for spending too much time in the country. Labor retook the seat at the 2006 general election. This year, former member for Gaven and family GP Alex Douglas will challenge sitting member Phil Gray.
Issues: The sitting member was asked to consider his political future by Premier Anna Bligh twice in December last year after threatening to sue two women who criticised him.
Expectation: The LNP should capitalise on the run of bad press and take the seat.
Point of interest: Gaven takes in some of the fastest growing suburbs in Australia, including parts of Helensvale, which last year had the highest number of mortgage defaults in the country.
Seat: Pumicestone
Member, margin: Carryn Sullivan, Labor, 5.4 per cent (Labor)
Location: Southern tip of Sunshine Coast
Voters: 33,252
Seat history: Pumicestone replaced the old seat of Caboolture in a 2001 redistribution at which Labor's Carryn Sullivan won the seat. Caboolture MP Bill Feldman - who had won that seat for One Nation before leaving the party - unsuccessfully contested the new district. Small business owner Shane Moon will again take up the fight for the LNP.
Issues: The LNP's water policy, which shuns recycled drinking water and scraps the Traveston Crossing Dam, includes building a desalination plant on Bribie Island, in this electorate.
Expectation: Close.
Point of interest: More than 70 per cent of voters say they do not use the internet.
Seat: Clayfield
Member, margin: Tim Nicholls, LNP, 0.2 per cent (Labor)
Location: Northern banks of Brisbane River between Breakfast Creek and Moreton Bay
Voters: 27,944
Seat history: Disgraced former Liberal senator Santo Santoro held the seat of Clayfield from 1992 until Liddy Clark won it for Labor in 2001. Liberal Tim Nicholls then took over in 2006. Recent changes to boundaries, which added parts of Lutwyche and Kedron, now make it a marginal Labor seat. Academic Dr Joff Lelliott will contest the seat for Labor this year.
Issues: This area of Brisbane is plagued by traffic congestion.
Expectation: Tim Nicholls' higher public profile as the LNP's treasury spokesman should see him retain the seat.
Point of interest: Some of the wealthiest suburbs of Brisbane.
Seat: Glass House
Member, margin: Carolyn Male, Labor, 0.01 per cent (LNP)
Location: Sunshine Coast hinterland
Voters: 33,881
Seat history: The electorate has in the past had a high combined conservative vote but has been split over competing candidates. Sitting MP Labor's Carolyn Male took the seat with ease in 2001 but the latest changes to the boundaries see the Labor majority wiped out. State government bureaucrat Andrew Powell will contest the seat for the LNP.
Issues: Water and the environment will be key issues within the mixed rural-urban electorate.
Expectation: An LNP take.
Point of interest: Controversial council mergers in 2008 were fiercely opposed on the Sunshine Coast.
Seat: Toowoomba North
Member, margin: Kerry Shine, Labor, 7.6 per cent (Labor)
Location: West of Brisbane
Voters: 26,494
Seat history: Toowoomba had a long history as a Labor town until the party lost both seats in 1974. The Liberals and Nationals held the seat between them until 2001, bar a single term in which Labor was elected. A huge swing to Labor then delivered the seat to Kerry Shine, who has held onto the marginal seat since then. Family man Trevor Watts will be the LNP's candidate.
Issues: Water is expected to be an issue with dams running low in previous years.
Expectation: Kerry Shine's higher public profile should see him retain the seat.
Point of interest: Almost 90 per cent of voters were born in Australia.
Seat: Chatsworth
Member, margin: Chris Bombolas, Labor, 0.6 per cent (Labor)
Location: East Brisbane
Voters: 33,094
Seat History: At the last election, Mr Bombolas, who is quitting politics at this election, narrowly won the seat from then opposition treasury spokesman Michael Caltabiano, by only about 100 votes. The Liberal National Party (LNP) candidate is Mr Caltabiano's wife Andrea. (New Labor candidate due to be announced February 23.)
Expectation: LNP win.
Issues: Crippled by traffic congestion, Brisbane's east is to get a new busway to help residents get to the city faster. But voters are unlikely to be impressed by its 20-year construction time.
Point of Interest: Area is known as a Brisbane Bible belt.
Seat: Cook
Member, margin: Jason O'Brien, Labor, 26 per cent (Labor)
Location: Far-north Queensland and the Torres Strait Islands
Voters: 25,664
Seat History: Normally a Labor held electorate, Cook fell to the National Party in 1974, and was held for one term by Eric Deeral, the first indigenous person to be elected to the Queensland parliament.
Expectation: Labor to win, but may take a hit over alcohol and justice reforms in indigenous communities, and anger over the government's bungled handling of the rape of a nurse in the Torres Strait.
Issues: Jason O'Brien has broken ranks several times to speak out against government policy as they relate to health and education in remote communities.
Point of Interest: About 26 per cent of constituents identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
Seat: Coomera
Member margin: A new seat made from parts of Albert, Broadwater and Gaven in the electoral redistribution.
Location: The Gold Coast's northern fringe.
Voters: 27,295
Seat History: Labor has preselected Leeanne Enoch, a former teacher, public servant and charity worker hand-picked by Premier Anna Bligh. LNP candidate Michael Crandon is a Pimpama financial planner, well known for his community work.
Expectation: Labor to win.
Issues: The seat comprises people pushed out of Brisbane due to unaffordable housing. It suffers from a lack of social infrastructure. Transport also important issue.
Point of Interest: If successful, Ms Enoch will become the first indigenous woman to sit in the Queensland parliament.
Seat: Whitsunday
Member, margin: Jan Jarratt, Labor, 8 per cent (Labor)
Location: North of Mackay, including Proserpine, Bowen, and the Whitsunday islands.
Voters: 28,378
Seat History: Ms Jarratt was elected in 2004 after it was revealed National Party candidate Dan van Blarcom was photographed at Nazi Party meetings in the 1970s.
Expectation: Labor to hang on.
Issues: Tourism has been flagging in the holiday region and many hope a new airport, proposed to be built from 2010, will help. Environmental pressures are also weighing on the area, with the government slapping a 20-year moratorium on shale oil mining and considering restrictions for cane growers to protect the Great Barrier Reef.
Point of Interest: Part of the movie Australia, directed by Baz Luhrmann, was filmed in Bowen.
Seat: Hervey Bay
Member, margin: Andrew McNamara, Labor, 4 per cent (Labor)
Location: The central Queensland coastline famous for whale watching.
Voters: 33,851
Seat History: Elected in 2001, Mr McNamara suffered a 3.6 per cent swing against him in 2004 and again in 2006.
Expectation: LNP candidate, former Hervey Bay mayor Ted Sorensen, to win.
Issues: Mr McNamara, the environment minister, can expect voter backlash over the Traveston Crossing Dam.
Point of Interest: Half of the constituents lived at a different address at the last election.
Seat: Indooroopilly
Member, margin: Ronan Lee, Greens (formerly Labor), 2 per cent (Liberal)
Location: Brisbane's west
Voters: 27,529
Seat History: Indooroopilly was once part of the Liberals' western suburbs heartland. Mr Lee was elected the seat's first Labor MP in 2001, hung on in 2004 but won only with preferences in 2006.
Expectation: LNP candidate, former journalist Scott Emerson, to win.
Issues: Mr Lee defected to the Greens in October 2008, saying he was fed up with government inaction on environmental issues. The move is likely to anger those who voted for a Labor representative.
Point of Interest: Labor candidate Sarah Warner is daughter of former Goss cabinet minister, Anne Warner.
AAP |
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CESARE LOMBROSO "The ignorant man always adores what he cannot understand" |
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