REMEMBER WHEN

INCREASINGLY unpredictable announcements by Premier Peter Beattie added to mounting speculation of an early state election.

Mr Beattie called an urgent meeting of cabinet and a press conference, fuelling rumours he was clearing the decks for a snap election.

The rumours escalated when ALP state secretary and campaign strategist Milton Dick walked into the meeting.

The Premier’s latest surprise move followed a week of big spending on new multimilliondollar projects and a reshuffle of senior public servants.

In the end, the major announcement from the special cabinet meeting was about a feasibility study into a 1200km water pipeline from the Burdekin Basin to Brisbane which wouldn’t be used until 2106.

“While it is economically not feasible to pipe water from the state’s north to the southeast in 2006, population growth and climate change may make such a pipeline not just cost-effective but essential in another 50 to 100 years,” Mr Beattie said.

Ministers left their families and travelled to Brisbane when he summoned them to the unplanned Cabinet meeting.

Mr Beattie said it was because former soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev was due to address a Cabinet meeting and there would not be time to discuss the usual business of government.

But it was the first time Mr Beattie has diverged from his usual Monday morning cabinet meeting, which has in the past often run overtime or started early to accommodate unscheduled events and visitors.