The good people at the Courier Mail seem determined to give us a piece of their collective mind. Like The Borg ship warping through space without so much as a tumble-turn, the Courier Mail has set its sights on the Beattie family with an inexplicable singlemindedness.
On Saturday, Madonna King was on a mission to make Peter Beattie accept more than his share of the blame for the ALP massacre last weekend, while stubbornly ignoring the context in which we live and vote. Madonna's article is here and my response is here.
Ms King's attack on Peter Beattie wasn't enough for the Courier Mail Hive Mind. This morning, they circled back for another attack, this time launched by the professionally opinionated Mike O'Connor, and aimed at Dr Heather Beattie. "Beattie Answers ALP Call" is the headline, accompanied by an image of Peter & Heather drinking from a keg labelled 'The Public Payroll". Subtle.
So, did Heather Beattie answer a call from the ALP, or did she simply make a decision to run, as grownups of independent minds do? Why is it so hard to imagine that nurse and educator Dr Heather Beattie might be ready for a new challenge? She's a highly intelligent woman, she is practical and capable, with a unique understanding of Queensland politics. If this is what she wants to do, bravo.
And was Mr Crowther, the candidate preselected for the Brisbane Central ward, pushed aside to make way for Dr Beattie's latest ambitious whim? Was it an accusation, an assumption or a guess from The Hive Mind?
I'd like to know what Mike O'Connor thinks is so wrong with public office? It's a bloody hard job, usually thankless, and I don't see Mike O'Connor or Madonna King or David Fagan or me (or most of you) lining up to run a chook raffle, much less having the strength of character and community focus to stand for election.
Perhaps Mr O'Connor thinks that the ALP in Queensland is having a problem with nepotism...or inbreeding. He cites Qld's new ALP Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk's call for a larger ALP gene pool as though it is evidence of an unspoken one-politician-per-family doctrine that the Beatties are breaking.
On the other hand, I don't recall Mr O'Connor expressing such sentiments about Campbell Newman, whose parents were both Federal Liberal Party Ministers.
I don't recall bitchy op-eds about Robbie Katter, a third generation politician, running for a seat in Queensland's Parliament in his father's new party, while his father is still serving as a Independent, then Katters Australian Party member in Canberra.
And then there's Mr O'Connor's obsession with money. Apparently the position of Brisbane City Councillor pays about $130K. Is he suggesting to me that the salary for a councillor is too high? If so, why attack Heather Beattie over it? Isn't that a matter for council, and one that applies equally to Labor and LNP councillors?
What was Campbell Newman paid as non-parliamentary LNP Leader? If I recall correctly, it was $12K/month - or $144,000 per year. I guess that's okay because it didn't come from state coffers. Still, it's a pretty good salary for a job with key performance indicators based on his ability to stay out of trouble while getting his head on tellie.
But no. The real problem is with Peter. He said he wouldn't take another role where his salary was paid by the people of Queensland. Resistance was, as always, futile, and he's back as a commercial consultant. Mike and the Hive Mind are determined that having Peter employed by the Queensland Government and Heather potentially paid by Brisbane City Council is just too much to bear.
I think the Hive Mind is twisting the words of the newly appointed Leader of the Opposition. By all means, let's diversify the ALP gene pool, but let's not throw out obvious talent because it might have a familiar name.
The great thing about the progressive side of politics is that people are expected to think for themselves, create, innovate, evaluate and learn. Hive Minders rarely understand that.
Showing posts with label peter Beattie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label peter Beattie. Show all posts
Monday, April 2, 2012
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Pointing Fingers
Peter Beattie's friends, family, supporters and detractors are, according to Brisbane commentator Madonna King, flooding her inbox in response to her article in yesterday's Courier Mail.
Like so many Queenslanders, Ms King is looking for reasons for last week's enormous LNP victory over the Queensland Labor. I'm one of those, and I am nowhere close to knowing what happened last week. What I do know is that in attempting to apportion blame between two Premiers, Anna Bligh and Peter Beattie, is an oversimplification. To assume that all responsibility lay with the party leaders is to ignore the context in which we operate.
Although some Labor supporters tried to convince themselves that miracles are possible, they were never going to win last week. They shouldn't have won on 2009 either. To understand Labor's appalling defeat, we have to look at the unlikely 2009 victory, and as Madonna did, peer even further back, but also closer to home.
After compiling a pithy list of Labor crises during Beattie's years in power, Ms King writes
Madonna, you've ignored a few facts too, and I'll admit that I'm about to commit the same sin. There is a vast array of factors that contribute to a government being bollocksed in the polls.
But let's start with a little Root Cause Analysis. It's so much more useful than blame.
The turning point that changed Anna Bligh from Labor Premier to Public Enemy was the Asset Sales decision, just a matter of weeks after winning the 2009 election. Asset Sales had not been suggested during the campaign. People hated the idea, and hated Premier Bligh and Treasurer Andrew Fraser for the decision. "See Queensland before its all sold off" read the bumper stickers. Voters felt betrayed, bitter, and the government's credibility was shredded.
So why move forward with such an unpopular decision? Doesn't really matter. There was a GFC that hit mining $ tourism hard, and we sold off some state owned assets to pay some bills.
Then there was the little matter of a credit rating being downgraded. More proof of a government unable to manage the economy? Read it for yourself.
Yes, Premier Beattie should have spent more on state infrastructure. He didn't. Premier Bligh had to catch up. Really, does pointing the finger help?
And then there was Queensland Health. Just where does the buck stop? The DG? The Minister? The Premier? Doesn't matter: the ALP was in government when Jayant Patel was at Bundaberg Base Hospital. The Health Minister was Gordon Nuttall. Patel and Nuttall are both serving time.
The pain continued with the Queensland Health Payroll Debacle. Let me introduce you to an acronym many of you won't know: UAT. User Acceptance Testing. It's an incredibly important phase of IT project work, where the client tests the new developments against a comprehensive range of real-world scenarios to ensure the product is fit for purpose. UAT is often the Go/NoGo for taking the project live. Guess which step was missed in the Qld Health Payroll project. Yep: UAT. The system wasn't tested, or wasn't tested well enough. Why? My guess is that someone had a large bonus riding on a GoLive target date being met. This kind of disaster tends to reflect the culture of the organisation, yet throwing blame at the Premier misses the target and helps no-one.
To completely destroy what was left of the Qld Health morale and reputation, there was the incident where a middle manager alledgedly helped himself to a few million dollars. This was the result of a systemic failure to conduct background checks, and one alledgedly greedy criminal.
I don't think anyone is denying that Qld Health is experiencing a series of crises. Beattie's fault? Bligh's fault? Hard to say. It's a bigger question around the relationship between the government and the public service.
I'm not a fan of blame. I think it's wasted effort.
We can, and should, be looking at 'why' rather than 'who', and the ALP will be doing plenty of that. Some of the 'why' will involve the issues Madonna King listed in her article, and the ones I mentioned here. Many more are harder to pin down: the "it's time" factor, the continued movement of the ALP to the right, backwash from Federal Labor, differences between the ALP and their union base...it's a long list of complex issues.
Peter Beattie is not blameless. Neither is Anna Bligh, Tim Fraser or anyone else from Qld Labor. Yet in this, as in most circumstances, finding people to blame has no benefit beyond making the blamer feel superior.
Like so many Queenslanders, Ms King is looking for reasons for last week's enormous LNP victory over the Queensland Labor. I'm one of those, and I am nowhere close to knowing what happened last week. What I do know is that in attempting to apportion blame between two Premiers, Anna Bligh and Peter Beattie, is an oversimplification. To assume that all responsibility lay with the party leaders is to ignore the context in which we operate.
Although some Labor supporters tried to convince themselves that miracles are possible, they were never going to win last week. They shouldn't have won on 2009 either. To understand Labor's appalling defeat, we have to look at the unlikely 2009 victory, and as Madonna did, peer even further back, but also closer to home.
After compiling a pithy list of Labor crises during Beattie's years in power, Ms King writes
"Now he makes the point that he's been gone more than five years but many of the problems Bligh's government faced were of Beattie's making. And to sheet home the entire blame for the election loss to the woman he groomed to replace him is to skew history, and ignore the facts."
Madonna, you've ignored a few facts too, and I'll admit that I'm about to commit the same sin. There is a vast array of factors that contribute to a government being bollocksed in the polls.
But let's start with a little Root Cause Analysis. It's so much more useful than blame.
The turning point that changed Anna Bligh from Labor Premier to Public Enemy was the Asset Sales decision, just a matter of weeks after winning the 2009 election. Asset Sales had not been suggested during the campaign. People hated the idea, and hated Premier Bligh and Treasurer Andrew Fraser for the decision. "See Queensland before its all sold off" read the bumper stickers. Voters felt betrayed, bitter, and the government's credibility was shredded.
So why move forward with such an unpopular decision? Doesn't really matter. There was a GFC that hit mining $ tourism hard, and we sold off some state owned assets to pay some bills.
Then there was the little matter of a credit rating being downgraded. More proof of a government unable to manage the economy? Read it for yourself.
Yes, Premier Beattie should have spent more on state infrastructure. He didn't. Premier Bligh had to catch up. Really, does pointing the finger help?
And then there was Queensland Health. Just where does the buck stop? The DG? The Minister? The Premier? Doesn't matter: the ALP was in government when Jayant Patel was at Bundaberg Base Hospital. The Health Minister was Gordon Nuttall. Patel and Nuttall are both serving time.
The pain continued with the Queensland Health Payroll Debacle. Let me introduce you to an acronym many of you won't know: UAT. User Acceptance Testing. It's an incredibly important phase of IT project work, where the client tests the new developments against a comprehensive range of real-world scenarios to ensure the product is fit for purpose. UAT is often the Go/NoGo for taking the project live. Guess which step was missed in the Qld Health Payroll project. Yep: UAT. The system wasn't tested, or wasn't tested well enough. Why? My guess is that someone had a large bonus riding on a GoLive target date being met. This kind of disaster tends to reflect the culture of the organisation, yet throwing blame at the Premier misses the target and helps no-one.
To completely destroy what was left of the Qld Health morale and reputation, there was the incident where a middle manager alledgedly helped himself to a few million dollars. This was the result of a systemic failure to conduct background checks, and one alledgedly greedy criminal.
I don't think anyone is denying that Qld Health is experiencing a series of crises. Beattie's fault? Bligh's fault? Hard to say. It's a bigger question around the relationship between the government and the public service.
I'm not a fan of blame. I think it's wasted effort.
We can, and should, be looking at 'why' rather than 'who', and the ALP will be doing plenty of that. Some of the 'why' will involve the issues Madonna King listed in her article, and the ones I mentioned here. Many more are harder to pin down: the "it's time" factor, the continued movement of the ALP to the right, backwash from Federal Labor, differences between the ALP and their union base...it's a long list of complex issues.
Peter Beattie is not blameless. Neither is Anna Bligh, Tim Fraser or anyone else from Qld Labor. Yet in this, as in most circumstances, finding people to blame has no benefit beyond making the blamer feel superior.
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