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Bush waves bye bye to Beattie

Rural Queensland will not miss retiring Premier Peter Beattie, who has regularly angered the bush with a string of controversial policies.

If the responses to this blog on the issue of council amalgamations are anything to go by, Mr Beattie is viewed as being someone akin to the likes of Hitler or Stalin.

Clearly the analogy drawn by many is historically ridiculous - Hitler and Stalin were both mass murdering dictators, whereas Beattie's greatest crime, according to bloggers, has been his disregard for the views of rural residents and a number of failed policies.

While his supporters respect his trait of taking tough and often unpopular decisions and sticking to his guns, it has been the bush that has been too often on the losing end of the equation.

Think not only council amalgamations, but also land clearing, rural health services, a reduction in rural horse racing, and the introduction of taxes on water and ambulances.

Indeed, Mr Beattie's tenure as Premier has been marked by a lurching from crisis to crisis that have occurred in between some major reforms that have delivered record low unemployment to the State.

Queensland's water and electricity services have failed to keep pace with the State's growth, while the health and child services departments have also been the subject to major scandals for their failures.

A remarkably adroit politician, Mr Beattie survived these crises by breaking with the accepted political response to such situations - he would often accept the blame, apologise and promise to fix the problem.

However, that was not always the case with key rural issues.

Mr Beattie took a hardline, inflexible stance on land clearing, leaving relations with rural lobby AgForce at an all time low.

While AgForce has taken great pains to rebuild a relationship with the Government, this has not been reciprocated with a genuine change in policy priorities for the bush.

The challenge now falls to Mr Beattie's likely replacement, current Deputy Premier Anna Bligh to bring a fresh and constructive approach to rural issues, starting with a funding injection for the Department of Primary Industries.

What do you think?

Posted By: Michael Thomson on 10/09/2007 3:14:50 PM | Comments (4)

Comments

Date: Newest first | Oldest first

So Beattie has pulled the pin a couple of years before the next state election, probably in the hope that his successor can gain a bit of credibility with the electorate.

It just about made me puke when I heard a TV news item describe him as one the most popular Premiers the State has ever had. What a load of twaddle.

He presided over the wrecking of every government department by surrounding himself with sycophants and incompetent advisers and cabinet ministers.

Never in Queensland's history has such thorough mismanagement been seen. His failures are monumental!

The fact that he did not maintain or increase the State's infrastructure to keep up with population growth was clearly illustrated by the severe water rationing, the health department falling apart with huge hospital waiting lists, DPI winding down services, etc, etc, ad nauseum.

I doubt that Labor can do much to repair the damage he has caused, due to the fact that the ones he has left behind to carry on don't have the skills to back up their mouths.

Posted by Trugger on 11/09/2007 3:17:24 PM

Beattie was a good manipulator with the media, but all his charisma did not enable him to cover up all his government's mistakes and scandals.

His arrogance with the amalgamation issue ensured that he resigned before the upcoming election.

Posted by Bushie on 13/09/2007 4:14:48 AM

The Australian Labor Party has learnt that no matter how good a leader, or in this case how bad, a perception exists in the greater community that the longer you are in leadership the worse you get.

From either a socialist or a conservative view over a period of time when you push enough legislation through, the unpopular legislation will start to tarnish the veneer.

One only has to look at Bob Carr, for example, who presided over an incompetent Government as Beattie has; he stepped aside and the public forgave the party beleiving that it was Bob Carr's fault and not the ALP.

The same happened in WA, Tasmania was slightly different but the same principle has applied, and then Vic, now Qld.

In this case it is a calculated move to make KRudd look more appealing. Beattie's, now Bligh's, amalgamation should still hurt the Labor Party but as experience has shown I doubt very much it will. "Peter bad, Anna good" will now prevail.

Posted by Alan Mears on 14/09/2007 3:55:01 AM

How right Alan Mears was in his statement that Anna Bligh would be promoted as "Peter bad, Anna good".

It now seems to be an active campaign by the media and ALP.

However, just because she has knocked daylight saving on the head doesn't mean she is doing anything to repair the damage Beattie has done.

If Anna Good wants to really impress us, she could start by restructuring the Vegetation Management Act so that it becomes more workable for the average farmer and does not remove his right to harvest timber.

Posted by trugger on 3/10/2007 4:11:05 PM

Michael Thomson is the Editor of FarmOnline. He has previously worked as the Canberra Parliamentary Press Gallery correspondent for the Rural Press group of agricultural newspapers, and as a senior reporter with Queensland Country Life.