The Queensland election

John Quiggin - The end of the Nats

Oddly enough, this short post by John Quiggin is about the only thing I care to link to about the Queensland State election on Saturday.

It is hard to imagine how a worse run campaign could have been run by the conservatives. Springborg has never appealed to me, but then again no Nationals leader has for decades now. His campaign was also interrupted by family tragedy (his father-in-law's suicide.) I doubt that the vote would have been any different had this not happened, though.

Bruce Flegg for the Liberals clearly needed an intensive week long course on media management, and a new haircut. He came across as a goofy looking, charmless, grumpy character, with nothing very specific to say about how to fix the Health portfolio. I had heard him sometimes before he was elected leader, and I thought he came across OK. I just don't know how he let it fall apart so quickly once the election was called.

Both should be replaced, and quickly.

There has been a lack of charisma on display in the State conservative parties for so long that it seems to have become self perpetuating. I mean, what new blood wants to get involved with such a bunch of losers?

Apart from that, they seemed to have no money for advertisements, and to be pretty much policy free. (The only thing I can remember is a vague aim to have no stamp duty within 5 years. This certainly did not sound financially very sound, and even if it was done and did result in a flood of investment and people to Queensland, voters probably wondered where the water to build the new suburbs would come from.)

Ah well, I suppose the one good thing is that uniform Labor State governments helps the Liberals keep power in Canberra.