NEWMAN'S GHOST WILL HAUNT NICHOLLS
Former government lacked consultation, but Labor might be taking it too far the other way
THIS decade Queenslanders have experienced two vastly different leadership styles.
One leader shot first and rarely asked questions, and another asks questions first and acts many months down the track.
The Campbell Newman-led LNP government repeatedly took action with little or no public consultation. The government famously declared controversial bikie laws “urgent” in order for them to pass through parliament without the usual public consultation process. One leading parliament-watcher believes Mr Newman’s legacy will haunt Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls.
In contrast, Annastacia Palaszczuk’s current Labor government has launched more than 200 reviews or inquiries since taking power in 2015. These have ranged from investigations into child abuse, black lung disease and the greyhound industry to reviews regarding administrative staff allocation in schools.
The regularity of reviews has caused the LNP to label the government as “do nothing” and “frozen at the wheel”.
But when Queensland Government ministers made their inaugural speeches in 2015 they made 553 commitments – 505 of which have been completed to date.
According to the government’s June 2017 Progress Report, 19 commitments will not be fulfilled.
This government’s major victories have come in its social agenda. It reintroduced samesex civil unions, removed 17year-olds from adult prisons and removed the “gay panic” murder defence.
In contrast, Labor’s failure to get promised land-clearing restrictions into law cost it a number of commitments.
The government has also launched 213 reviews on major issues – roughly one for every three business days since Labor won power.
In contrast, the former Newman government was heavily criticised for acting without any community or expert consultation.
There was much community pushback when Newman’s government rushed bikie laws, including reverse onus of proof on bail applications and increased penalties if bikie club membership could be proved, through parliament late at night to bypass parliament’s committee system.
University of Queensland politics expert Chris Salisbury said Mr Newman’s “ghost” would continue to haunt Mr Nicholls during the campaign.
“Every party except the LNP will highlight Mr Nicholls’ roll as part of the troika of leadership, along with Campbell Newman and Jeff Seeney, in the last government,” Dr Salisbury said.
“He carries some baggage and even since he took over the leadership, that has hurt him, after Mr Newman made some statements about how big of a role Mr Nicholls played in the asset sales policy.”
Dr Salisbury said voters needed to look to Mr Nicholls’ work as treasurer and Opposition Leader to understand his leadership style.
Griffith University state politics expert Paul Williams said voters preferred consultation but still wanted decision making.
He said voter preference for consultation or decisiveness often followed the south-east versus regional Queensland split.
“Voters outside the southeast
prefer more decisiveness than those in Brisbane,” he said.
“But the problem is politically that crash-or-crash-through style of government has a very short shelf life.
“We saw it with Campbell Newman. You don’t consult with groups and they start to band together against you, they start talking in the media and the voters turn away.”
Dr Williams said the Labor Government had failed to sell the number of policy commitments it had completed.
“The sorts of things this government has achieved – like expunging criminal records for homosexuality, or removing 17year-olds from adult prisons – these aren’t the things families talk about around the dinner table when they are struggling to pay their power bills,” he said.
“But they have managed to achieve a lot of their agenda despite the hung parliament and being hamstrung by some pretty patchy ministers and MPs.
“But when this government was elected none of us thought they would last a full term. At every scandal we thought ‘this will bring it down’. But here we are.”