STOP UNION FUNDS TOO
A BATTLE for political control of Queensland is being fought on the Gold Coast.
A fervent zeal shown by Gold Coast LNP MPs on the floor of State Parliament in backing the Tate administration at city hall, attacking the lobby group that has lodged complaints with the CCC and shooting the messenger – the Bulletin – for reporting on it, masks a much deeper matter.
Their anger revolves around political donations at the heart of this ideological war. On one side is the LNP and certainly on the Gold Coast, its reliance on developer donations. On the other is the Labor Government and its reliance on union backers.
The real story here is Labor’s determination to destroy the funding base of the LNP, and the Opposition’s furious counter-operation to put a stop to union funding of Labor campaigns. There is a perception this Government, which reportedly enjoyed a contribution of more than $2 million from the unions to its election war chest for the last election, is prepared to look after the unions accordingly.
Indeed Labor is showing false piety in getting on its moral high horse about the murkiness of developer donations while ignoring questions over union donations and influence. The militant CFMEU holds building sites to ransom, yet the Government says and does little to rein it in. Gold Coasters witnessed the union in action when its members lay around at Commonwealth Games construction sites and enjoyed barbecues during regular stopwork meetings.
The obvious solution to the donations argument is to impose tough restrictions with stringent monitoring, or to ban them altogether and fund elections from a publicly funded purse. But this is politics and until politicians have an epiphany that makes them want to work for the greater good, it is not going to happen.
Consequently the argy-bargy is descending into outright hostility and pollies being pollies, others are caught in the crossfire, including the Bulletin for doing its job. John-Paul Langbroek, Rob Molhoek and Michael Hart really ought to take a cold shower before leaping to their feet in Parliament, and not bolt themselves unreservedly to the city council cause.
We understand LNP anger that unions and their funding aren’t under threat, but that does not mean the conservatives should condemn any scrutiny of council operations and dealings with developers; nor should they attack the media for reporting – in the public interest – the Crime and Corruption Commission’s decision to investigate matters raised by the Save Surfers Paradise lobby group.
Nevertheless, here is the Bulletin’s line – if Labor is so determined to cut off developer and corporate donations, then union funding of political parties must also be shut down. Public hearings into union influence should be conducted, just as they were into developer and party donations for the Gold Coast City Council elections.
We also urge those who would attack the Surfers Paradise lobby group to think hard. That organisation, comprising business people, lawyers and a retired judge, has not argued about politics, but about process and when it all boils down, the potential loss of parking in the heart of the tourism capital.