The Queensland Government

Queensland is currently ruled by a Labor Government which serves property developers, land speculators and mining companies rather than workers, the interests of whom the Labor Party was first formed to serve, or the wider community.

Promotion of population growth in spite of strains on infrastructure and the environment and water shortages

The Labor Government, now led by Premier Anna Bligh, has recklessly encouraged population growth in order to enrich its property developer masters and continues to do so in spite of the lack of water, traffic congestion, loss of bush habitat and biodiversity, strains on electricity generation and other infrastructure and strains on its health services. The Queensland government intends to make the inhabitants of the Mary Valley and Wyaralong pay the price by having their communities inundated with water in dams to supply the water needs of the additional population.

On 8 December 2005 only months before the reality of Queensland's water crisis became too obvious for the Beattie Government to deny, a full page advertisement was placed in Brisbane's Courier Mail Newspaper (and we suspect in the other major capital city) in anticipation of the birth of the four millionth Queenslander the following day. It was laid somewhat similar to what follows:

The latest manifestations of this insanity are plans to hold "Work Live and Play in Queensland" expositions to be held in the Melbourne Exhibition Centre from 17 Aug to 19 August and in the Sydney Showgrounds from 5 October to 7 October.

Beattie Government sells of the family silver

Premier Peter Beattie has, on past occasions, postured against the Federal Government's privatisation of Telstra. In spite of this, Beattie Government has itself privatised many of the the Queensland people's assets and continues to do so. These include: Suncorp (previously known as the State Government Insurance Office) against an explicit election promise not to do so, The Dalrymple Bay Coal Loader, the retail arm of Energex, The Golden Casket state lotteries office. Currently there are plans afoot to privatise Queensland Rail and to sell all remaining publicly owned land deemed suitable for housing to private developers.

Earlier this year, only months after the privatisation of Energex (now known as Origin Energy) with the loss of a substantial government income stream, Deputy Premier Anna Bligh announced the increasing of stamp duties on vehicle sales fro 2% to 4%. From now on, what was once an almost trivial cost to purchasers of second vehicles hand will now be a very hefty expense in addition to the many other expenses of transfer of ownership.

Queensland helps warm the planet with its coal exports

The Queensland Government is also bent on digging up and exporting as as much of our finite endowment of coal as it possibly can as quickly as possible can in spite of the grave threat that it poses to the global climate.

All in all, those who imagined, through the dark years of Bjelke-Petersen's reign, that the election of Labor would herald a new age of enlightened government would have been disappointed. Both Beattie, and before him, Goss, have turned their backs on the workers they supposedly represent, democratic principles and open government and are every bit as contemptuous towards our environment.