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Flotation device for premier's sinking party

By Scott Prasser - posted Thursday, 20 January 2011


Significantly, Bligh has not extended the hand of bipartisanship to Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek. There have been no joint press briefings, no sharing of government planes, no consultation on policy announcements.

"Captain" Bligh is in charge and that is the way it is going to be. It is in the Queensland tradition of strong partisanship, strong leadership. Former National Party premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen would have approved.

Reinforcing her renewed vigour, Bligh is also looking ahead. She knows this is her big opportunity. The floods may have saved her from being poleaxed by her own party, but she has to do more to save her premiership and the Labor Party from the political annihilation presaged by the polls.

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Bligh is on to it.

She has appointed a commission of inquiry just as there were beginning to be rumblings about this. Moreover, the commission has a well-balanced membership of legal knowledge, police experience and outside expertise about water issues. Its terms of reference and processes are both review oriented and future focused. Not only will it look at the effectiveness of current arrangements in responding to the crisis, but it will also report on potential future problems (read voter complaints) about compensation and insurance. Significantly, the commission had been asked to provide an interim report by August, before the next wet season.

Start thinking early election, with Bligh arguing for a mandate to reconstruct Queensland, based on the commission's interim report and a tough new state budget due about June.

And in the lead-up to the interim report and the budget, it is Bligh and her ministers who will be out and about, seeing, caring, leading, governing and, of course, spending, and spending legitimately, in the eyes of most, to help people through this crisis: a perfect scenario for a Labor government.

So, where does this leave the LNP opposition? On the political sandbank with no real role in the post-crisis clean-up, in policy development or in proposing viable solutions that do not seem like harping complaints.

However, many things can go wrong for Bligh. Success in managing a crisis is not always sustained, as former Victorian Labor premier John Brumby found. The commission of inquiry may find that the state government could have addressed certain issues relating to infrastructure and planning before the floods. The issue of the earlier release of water from the Wivenhoe Dam, built after the 1974 floods to minimise damage from a recurrence, could become a problem. And given that Labor administrations have governed Queensland almost uninterrupted since 1989, it may be hard to avoid blame on these issues.

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Local government, which has lost many of its powers over water, may bite back.

Nevertheless, Bligh now has an opportunity to relaunch her premiership and give Queensland Labor a new mission. She can do it, but it will take considerable skill, focus and delivery of policy to maintain the present momentum.

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First published in The Australian on January 19, 2011



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About the Author

Dr Scott Prasser has worked on senior policy and research roles in federal and state governments. His recent publications include:Royal Commissions and Public Inquiries in Australia (2021); The Whitlam Era with David Clune (2022) and the edited New directions in royal commission and public inquiries: Do we need them?. His forthcoming publication is The Art of Opposition reviewing oppositions across Australia and internationally. .


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