No opposition leaves Beattie in peril

In other States, Auditor-Generals and Ombudsmen and other parliamentary officers have on occasion emerged as staunch defenders of proper process and democracy. Sadly, this is not such a pronounced tendency here. Mind you, the auditor-general in Queensland does work under some constraints that some of his interstate colleagues don't have to put up with.

Then of course, there is the media. As media myself, I can boast that generally we can be good at discovering and highlighting some types of individual villainy and we give a reasonable description of the everyday passing political parade. But I have to confess we are not quite so good with what's behind the parade and just where its going, and we are often pretty hopeless on ideas, history, trends, processes and institutional performance.

The devil, they say, is in the detail.. So it is. Generally, in the media, we don't do detail.

And that's in the moderately attentive bit of the media, which in this city comes down to one newspaper and one public broadcasting outlet with a disposable income of eight cents a day and falling.

There are other outlets, of course. They might know Brisbane like nobody else but they aren't letting on to very much of what they know. Be sure . . . of not much.

I am one of those simple souls who believes that opposition is an essential part of the governmental process. Ministers and governments try a bit harder and are more inclined to turn away from temptation when they know they are under a modicum of scrutiny. A little thoughtful opposition means we will have a better chance that policies will be better formed, explained and implemented.

Without it, governments make silly mistakes, believe their own propaganda and lose touch.

Beattie can, if he wishes, use his huge majority in parliament to re-invigorate democracy in Queensland. He won't be easy, and the most entrenched opposition to any such notions will come from within his own party, under the underlying philosophy of never giving the other side an even break.

Beattie can unshackle parliamentary committees and officers, especially the auditor-general and ombudsman. He can unshackle the parliament, particularly in its ability to question and get answers and have free ranging public interest debates at times when there are TV cameras about..

He can appoint a speaker who goes by the parliamentary, not the party, rule book and encourage this novel approach to the position. And he can generously resource the opposition, the independents and enhance the research capacity of the Parliamentary Library.

Even though he doesn't need to, he can negotiate legislation rather than simply spring it on the house.

This would be radical. But Beattie does have a record in this area, most recently in generously allocating more funds to enable the coalition leaders to mount a better Statewide campaign.

There is absolutely no sign that he intends to treat the depleted opposition with anything like the gleeful humiliation that National Party Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen dished out to the 11 surviving ALP members in 1974.

And Beattie is not stupid. He could well remember that for quite a few years the most troublesome opposition Joh faced was a rump of liberal-minded Liberals elected in the 1974 landslide.