Australian Politics
David Crisafulli's big chance
The 45-year-old Liberal National Party leader enters the campaign proper next week as white-hot favourite to become Queensland’s 41st premier. Newspoll shows it is his fight to lose against Steven Miles, who succeeded three-time election winner Annastacia Palaszczuk barely 10 months ago and has struggled to get his arms around the poisoned chalice he inherited.
Crisafulli’s watchwords are work, discipline, caution and more work. He presents as a man willing to take nothing for granted, to leave as little to chance as possible in the frenetic sprint to polling day.
Had the voters had their say last week, he would have been the comfortable winner: The Weekend Australian’s Newspoll puts the LNP 10 points clear of Labor after preferences and there is daylight between the leaders’ personal numbers. Crisafulli leads 46-39 per cent on the key measure of preferred premier that traditionally favours the incumbent, reinforcing perceptions a change of government is imminent.
Fellow Queenslander Peter Dutton will certainly hope so. While it is unwise to extrapolate a state outcome to the national level, victory for the LNP would be a fillip for the blue team in the countdown to the federal election Anthony Albanese will call by next May. Atmospherics are always important in politics, and the Country Liberal Party’s triumph in the Northern Territory last month breached the red wall of mainland Labor governments.
A result for the LNP on Dutton’s home turf would boost Coalition morale and fundraising prospects coast to coast. If Miles contrived, however, to pull off the Houdini-like act of delivering Labor a fourth consecutive state term, the Liberal-Nationals merger would come under renewed if not irresistible pressure.
The LNP is cumbersome to operate in Canberra. It was created to govern in Queensland, and if it can’t knock over Miles’s tired and unpopular outfit, what’s the point of it?
No pressure then, DC, to borrow the nickname Crisafulli’s advisers use. No pressure at all.
When we sit down to a working lunch at one of Crisafulli’s favourite haunts, Paradise Point Bowls Club, on the northern lip of his Gold Coast seat of Broadwater, he expresses the hope we’re hungry because he certainly is.
As usual, he has been up before the sun to hit the gym. He has done a media doorstop where he banged on about the LNP’s “adult crime, adult time” antidote to youth offending – a problem that has galvanised the electorate, especially in north Queensland where he grew up on a sugarcane farm outside smalltown Ingham. Crisafulli likes to say his values come from there.
He orders a steak – rare, please – with mashed potato and greens, washed down by mineral water for the table. The eatery staff know him, all right. His plate arrives piled high and he goes at it with gusto. Chomp, chomp.
We’re talking about the man he was and who he became after that chastening election defeat in 2015. Until then, Crisafulli’s future looked assured. Following high school, he had studied journalism at Townsville’s James Cook University and landed a job as a cadet reporter on his local paper, the Herbert River Express. He wound up on regional TV.
But his dad, Tony, let the cat out of the bag recently by recalling that young DC always had his sights set on politics. “That’s his way of saying he didn’t think I was a good farmer,” Crisafulli quipped, unconvincingly, during their awkward exchange for a profile segment on Nine News.
Tony: “No, no … he just wanted his thing for politics … it’s in your genes if you want to do something.”
Soon enough, 23-year-old DC was working as a staff member for Townsville-based Liberal senator Ian Macdonald in 2003. Within a year he ran for an elected spot on Townsville City Council, considered at the time to be a closed shop for Labor. He wore out three pairs of shoes doorknocking and won; he stood for the deputy mayor’s job in 2008 and got that to boot. By then he had married his teenage sweetheart, Tegan, the mother of their two daughters.
Anna Bligh’s state Labor government was on its last legs when Crisafulli was preselected by the LNP to contest the local seat of Mundingburra at the 2012 election. Newman, parachuted into the leadership from outside parliament, chalked up a win for the ages, capturing 78 of the 89 seats in state parliament then on offer. He went straight into cabinet as minister for local government, characteristically impatient to make his mark.
Unfortunately for him, what should have been a two or three-term government turned out to be a lone-term disaster for the LNP. The headstrong Newman brawled with all comers – public servants on job cuts, the judges over a crackdown on outlaw motorcycle gangs – and further alienated a sceptical electorate when he tried to rebrand as 99-year leases the state asset sales on which he had savaged Bligh to pay down surging public debt.
The tide went out as swiftly as it had come in, leaving Crisafulli high and dry, out of parliament, out of a job, and Palaszczuk unexpectedly premier in a minority Labor government. (Newman also lost his suburban Brisbane seat.)
Father-of-two Crisafulli moved the family to the Gold Coast and went into business as sole director of a training company, SET Solutions, that failed in 2016 owing creditors more than $3m. Following allegations that the firm might have traded insolvent, Crisafulli paid $200,000 to settle claims from liquidators; he denies any wrongdoing.
In 2017 he seized his opportunity to return to state parliament via blue-ribbon Broadwater, ousting incumbent Verity Barton, one of the LNP’s under-represented female MPs, in a bruising preselection challenge. It’s hard to see how he would get away with that today. Labor accused him of “destroying the career of the youngest woman in parliament”, while Barton’s supporters claimed the branch had been stacked, an accusation Crisafulli rejected.
Speaking publicly of those events for the first time from Britain, where she has built a career as a corporate consultant, Barton is magnanimous. “David is a determined man with a clear sense of the Queensland he wants to create,” she says.
Even now, the memory of those fraught times still animates the LNP leader. Crisafulli stabs at his beef. He admits that he pushed too hard and being belted by the voters in 2015 was the life lesson he needed. “You can make reform, but you can do it with compassion,” he says, recounting what he took out of that “humbling” experience.
“You can make the decisions that are needed, but you can still treat people with respect and decency. I genuinely believe I have always been a good listener and … the longer I’m in public life, the more I see the value of compassion and empathy and … I think that’s one of the really important things that I’d like to see if we were to win the election.”
Sounds reassuring, and those who know the man attest that he absorbed the mistakes of the Newman government and is the better for it, both as a person and politician.
“Part of the reason why the Labor Party has governed almost exclusively in Queensland for the last three decades is because we, as a political movement, haven’t been focused on service delivery,” he says.
Was his side too fixated on the value issues driven by its powerful Christian right wing? Distracted by Newmanesque symbolism such as making convicted outlaw bikies wear pink prison garb or some other outbreak of culture warfare?
Crisafulli responds cautiously. “That would be wrong to say that … but let me give you an example. When I became leader some people said to me: ‘Focusing on the health system is not something that is an equity of the LNP.’
“I disagree. I’ve seen the complete and utter disintegration of health services in this state – everything from escalation of ambulance ramping, to waiting lists and the closure of services in regional areas. Now, in the past, we haven’t had a laser-like focus on fixing the health system. And the fact that Queenslanders are looking at us as a solution to the health crisis, I think, shows the results of four years of discipline, not just for me … that’s been a combined effort.”
Certainly, his me-tooism in backing Labor policy has dismayed conservative purists.
Crisafulli in June made an unprecedented commitment to adopt Miles’s big-spending budget, vowing to honour all infrastructure projects and social services funded across the forward estimates. He voted his conscience against Palaszczuk’s abortion and voluntary euthanasia law reforms but insists the questions are settled and won’t be revisited by an LNP government.
There will be no rerun of the proposed 14,000-strong public service cull that arguably doomed Newman’s government at the outset, even though the LNP is critical of the extra 57,000 hirings made under Labor, excluding police, doctors, nurses and emergency personnel. (Crisafulli is on another unity ticket with Miles in saying he wants more of these “frontline” workers.)
He insists that state debt, projected to hit an eye-watering $172bn by 2028, will be lower, but doesn’t say by how much, and there’s a commensurate absence of detail around his pledge to ease the state tax burden.
Voters must wait for the campaign to be told of the LNP’s target to reduce ambulance ramping outside choked hospital emergency departments.
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Sexist judge quashes Mona Ladies Lounge tribunal decision that saw it shut down
Strange reasoning
In March, New South Wales' man Jason Lau brought an anti-discrimination case against Hobart's Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) after being denied entry to the lounge last year, and initially won in Tasmania's appeals tribunal.
But that decision has been quashed by Acting Justice Shane Marshall, and sent back to the tribunal for reconsideration.
He found the lounge was designed to promote equal opportunity for women generally, and so it could lawfully exclude men.
Acting Justice Marshall found the discrimination experienced by women was not just confined to the past, but occurs today as well, and so women should be able to create an "exclusive space" to create a "flipped universe".
"The correct approach … is to ask first whether the arrangement's purpose was to promote equal opportunity," he wrote.
"On the evidence, the unequivocal answer is 'yes' because the Ladies' Lounge was designed to provide women with an exclusive space where they receive positive advantage as distinct from the general societal disadvantage they experience."
'Celebration certainly due', curator says
Artist and Ladies' Lounge creator Kirsha Kaechele described it as a win for women.
"I'm very inspired by the occurrences in the courtroom today. In 30 seconds the patriarchy was smashed," she said.
"The verdict demonstrates a simple truth: Women are better than men."
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Aussie state sparks outrage for major treaty move: 'Stop wasting money'
NSW premier Chris Minns has been slammed for forging ahead with treaty consultations with Indigenous Australians despite the defeat of the Voice last year.
Warren Mundine, an Indigenous leader who opposed the referendum, urged Mr Minns to 'stop wasting money', saying a treaty would not solve problems within the Aboriginal community.
'It's not going to … help anyone, it's just a total waste of time,' he said. 'Stop with these stupid, stupid conversations.'
Mr Mundine, who started out as a Labor political operative before later running for a seat as a Liberal, said NSW should instead 'start looking at the crime rate'.
'Let's start getting education, let's start getting jobs and dealing with those government issues that need to be done,' he told Sky News.
On Friday, the state government appointed three commissioners to conduct a one-year 'listening tour' across the state.
This tour will look at whether the state's Indigenous communities want a treaty and how that should work if they did.
But Mr Mundine dismissed the plan as a waste of money and time.
'If we take their track record so far it shows like in the Voice campaign they went out on a "listening" tour, and they didn't listen because they got flogged in that vote,' he said.
'My advice to Chris (Minns) is, come on mate, stop wasting money. We know what the issues are within Aboriginal communities.
'We know how to fix things and get things better. Setting out these talkfests (is) just a waste of time, and even if you go ahead with it, it has to be a vote for the people of NSW.'
Victoria was the first to introduce legal frameworks for an Indigenous treaty in 2018, with Queensland, Tasmania, the ACT and Northern Territory also looking at establishing their own treaties.
South Australia legislated for a state-based Voice in March 2023.
But Mr Mundine said state treaties would not help solve the problems experienced by Indigenous communities.
'None of them (states pursuing treaties) are going to fix anything, I can tell you that now,' he said.
'All it is… going to do is fix the hip pocket of the people who are sitting on those communities.'
He pointed out that in Australia's First Nations Voice to Parliament election in South Australia in March, more than 90 per cent of eligible Indigenous voters did not vote.
'We saw in South Australia only… 10 per cent of Aboriginals actually voted in that election, 90 per cent didn't. That's a big... "no we don’t want this,"' he said.
In Victoria, the First Peoples' Assembly held elections in 2019 and 2023.
But the Assembly, which is supposed to negotiate a treaty with the state government, has had very low voter turnouts, with just 7 per cent of eligible voters doing so in 2019 and 10 per cent in 2023.
Mr Mundine told Sky News host Danica di Giorgio that it's pointless to try to find other ways of getting a treaty after the referendum was so comprehensively defeated, with 60.06 per cent of people voting no.
'It divides the community. They community has already voted. They voted on the Voice and it was quite clear, treaty was in that Voice,' he said.
'They made it quite clear, "No, we want to come together as a nation, we don't want to be divided."'
The three people appointed to work on the NSW treaty process are former senator Aden Ridgeway, academic Dr Todd Fernando and Naomi Moran, editor of the Koori Mail newspaper.
The NSW Aboriginal Affairs and Treaty Minister David Harris said 'The NSW Government is delivering on its election commitment to consult with Aboriginal people about whether they want to embark on any future treaty process.
'This is the first step in work that could eventually drive improved outcomes for Aboriginal people, and all NSW taxpayers,' he told Daily Mail Australia.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13902971/Aussie-state-treaty-Aboriginal.html
*****************************************************Coalition to say ‘no’ to Labor’s misinformation bill
The Coalition has committed to formally opposing Labor’s misinformation bill in parliament, after months of concerns over the risk it may pose to free speech.
Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman said the bill, which was withdrawn by Labor in November and redrafted following harsh criticism of its overreach, had “no place in Australia”.
“The Bill gives digital platforms an enormous financial incentive to censor statements made by everyday Australians. If the government decides that they have not censored enough ‘misinformation’, they can face large fines,” Mr Coleman said.
“Digital platforms don’t care about the free speech of Australians – but they do care about their profits. So they will censor large amounts of material in order to avoid the risk of fines. Digital platforms cannot be fined for censoring too much material – but they can be fined if they do not censor enough material.”
Mr Coleman added that the Bill, which Labor hopes to pass before the end of the year, was “extremely broad” and would capture many things said by Australians every day.
“The process of identifying … ‘misinformation’ is highly subjective and will lead to the suppression of the free speech of Australians,” he said.
“Everyday Australians are captured by the bill, but some groups are excluded from its operation. For instance, any ‘reasonable dissemination’ of material for an academic, scientific, or artistic purpose is excluded from the bill, but if an everyday Australian disagrees with an academic, that can be ‘misinformation’.
Mr Coleman warned such provisions in the “created two classes of speech in Australia – one for favoured groups, and one for everybody else”.
“This is outrageous,” he said.
The Coalition also holds concerns about the communications minister being given power to personally order “misinformation investigations and misinformation hearings”.
This could include investigations and hearings into digital platforms which the Minister believes contain too much ‘misinformation’.
“This is wide open to abuse and an extraordinary power for a Minister to hold in a democracy,” Mr Coleman said.
“On the other side of the coin, the Minister can choose to exclude a favoured digital platform from the operation of the misinformation laws entirely.”
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has maintained the rejigged bill got the balance right between protecting Australians against harmful misinformation and not undermining free speech.
“The Albanese Government has consulted extensively on the Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill, including with the release of an exposure draft for public comment, the publication of submissions and further targeted consultation with experts,” she said.
“Misinformation and disinformation threatens the safety and wellbeing of Australians, and undermines our society and democracy. Doing nothing is not an option – and 80 per cent of Australians agree on the need to act.”
But Queensland Council for Civil Liberties president Michael Cope said he still held concerns about any government body being the judge of truth and the impact this could have on freedom of speech.
Mr Cope, who stressed he was still considering the changes in the updated bill as he worked towards the “ridiculous” deadline of September 30 to complete his submission, said he was not so far convinced his concerns about the bill had been addressed.
“A government body is creating these codes, and these codes require the social media entities to remove misinformation and disinformation, that is information which is not true, and if they don’t, they’re subject to civil penalties.
“So the government – through the ACMA – is deciding what’s true and false and politics is full of all sorts of claims which are just value judgments.
Mr Cope said he was still considering if changes to the latest version of the bill to specify that misinformation was content which caused “serious harm” were sufficient to address his concerns, though his “gut reaction is probably not”.
“There’s a difference between a regulation in relation to say, what the doctors says to their patients, most of the time that is the subject of that can be demonstrated scientifically,” he said.
“But you know, if some politician stands up and says, ‘the RBA’s inflation target is a load of rubbish’. That’s a contested political judgement. Somebody could say, ‘that’s undermining the Australian economy’, because that’s a contested political statement.”
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http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
https://westpsychol.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH -- new site)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
https://john-ray.blogspot.com/ (FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC -- revived)
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http://jonjayray.com/short/short.html (Subject index to my blog posts)
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Evelyn Rae, a conservative Australian political commentator
Sahara Ray is undoubtedly a good-looking woman. Since she is Australian-born there is even a possibility that we may be distantly related. I hope she recovers soon from her encounter with Guillain-Barré syndrome
Margo Robbie -- a beautiful australian
My son Joe at ANU
One of the happiest pictures ever -- Cleo Smith, aged 4
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