WALKING AWAY IS THE WRONG MOVE
PARTISAN politics is a contest of ideas, with voters in a democratic society getting the choice of which vision best matches what they believe in.
Our politicians spend most of their time fighting each other, debating ideas, with one side triumphing every election cycle.
This is par for the course, which is what makes it even the more remarkable – and refreshing – when both major sides can remove their partisan blinders and work together for the betterment of society.
It was famously said that the things which unite are far greater than those that divide us but this so frequently is not displayed by our MPs.
In August the Bulletin revealed that Labor and the LNP were going to be working together on a bipartisan solution to the child safety crisis which is gripping the Gold Coast’s streets.
It came after Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk declared her Child Safety Minister Di Farmer would enter talks with her LNP counterparts in a “bipartisan and constructive way”.
This was welcomed at the time as a breakthrough for an issue which has fallen through the cracks for far too long under governments of both political colours.
But a mere three months on from what was heralded as an unprecedented cross-party alliance on a crisis impacting the Gold Coast’s youth, both sides have descended into bickering like kids in a sandpit.
The revelation in this newspaper today that both sides have all but walked away from this is deeply disappointing.
Neither side has the moral high ground and to politicise this pressing issue yet again simply kicks the can down the road. No matter which side of politics you support, you cannot possibly argue that walking away from bipartisan talks is the right decision on child safety.
Not when, as revealed this year in the Bulletin, kids under resi-care which is costing up to $500,000 a year are at times going hungry.
Not when, as revealed this year in the Bulletin, Child Safety officials had escorted a juvenile to score dope.
Not when, as revealed this year in the Bulletin, a 12-year-old girl who had been taken out of foster care has ended up roaming the streets homeless, taken up with a youth gang and prostituted herself to get by.
The system is clearly broken – a bipartisan approach gave a glimmer of hope that something better supported and with more teeth might replace it for the sake of vulnerable kids.
But that hope has been dashed on the eve of both sides asking for your support on Saturday.