Not so grim up North

Beyond intermittent, quixotic calls to separate from Queensland, the independent-mindedness of the region is shown in the history of the labour movement in the North. Local unionists – who knew they could get a better deal than their Southern comrades because of the region’s isolation – resisted the introduction of State-wide awards in the ‘20s, antagonising State Labor Governments. Despite the contemporary reputation for reactionary politics, in the 1940s Fred Patterson was both an alderman on the Townsville City Council and a State MP for the seat of Bowen on a Communist ticket. This was after he had been a feisty advocate for the rights of thousands of mid-century Italian farm labourers in the region, whose descendents still have a powerful presence throughout the area.

The point is that historically, politically and demographically, the region is much more tricky than the lazy vignettes of journalists passing through on the campaign trail might allow. Representatives like Entsch – with large and diverse electorates – need to be clever and supple in knitting together diverse constituencies.

The politicians who really succeed in the tropics are those who manage to develop idiosyncratic, locally-targeted political platforms, and who use them to build loyal personal votes across political lines. Entsch has been one, but other examples include ALP mayor of Townsville Tony Mooney, who has reigned for eighteen years by means of canny political improvisation and astute brand-management. The ability of Bob Katter to persist as an independent, conservative gadfly in Kennedy, and the fact that the ALP has an even chance at winning in Herbert with McDonalds mogul George Colbran show that personal success and iconoclastic stands that transcend partisan allegiances are not only useful, but necessary to political longevity.

Parties like Family First, who might be seen by outsiders as having a chance in the North, have too narrow a message to make serious or lasting inroads, and it doesn't help when they use their media opportunities to taunt rivals at the expense of addressing bread and butter issues. The fact that the last remaining Queensland One Nation member represents the seat of Tablelands merely shows how exceptional the decline of that dairy and forestry district is in a booming region.

With Northern Australia holding so many of the resources that are underwriting the country's present prosperity, and so much of the water that will become crucially important in coming years, its politics and history are worth understanding now and into the future.

And if Charlie MacKillop loses in Leichhardt, it won’t be because of her gender or sexual orientation, but because she failed to negotiate the intricate process of convincing the seat that she has what it takes as a politician to represent them. That's tricky for all aspirants because the electorate includes cosmopolitan tourist towns, mines, cattle stations, fishing villages and remote Aboriginal communities.

For Jacobsen to think otherwise shows his political naivety. And it might provoke us to ask whether politicised Christian morality in the Family First mould has much of a future, in the North or the rest of Australia.