Staff writers
For Queensland Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk the penny just dropped – Labor is on the nose, in fact it is putrid in the north and most other parts of the state except the spoilt south east corner.
For the past three days the entire State Cabinet descended on a languishing Cairns where the ALP has three state MP’s and another at nearby Mareeba.
Comrade Premier Palaszczuk porkbarrelling like a drunken sailor
The Labor Party has realised that strong opposition from Katters Australian Party and LNP candidates in the four, key Labor held seats could see all four sitting members exit parliament after the October 31 election and the Premier lose government.
Like a drowning man clutching at straws the Premier is lashing out with obscure, expensive projects trying to ooze into the duopoly’s pork barrel.
But the genie is already out of the barrel with the Bradfield Inland Irrigation Scheme, incidentally, which federal MP Bob Katter has been talking up for three decades.
Katter’s Australian Party Leader Robbie Katter warned North Queenslanders to be wary of lip service from both Labor and the LNP as the Brisbane-based parties attempt to out-bid one another as the number one supporters of the game-changing Revised Bradfield Scheme.
Mr Katter has thrown cold water on an announcement today by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk that economist Professor Ross Garnaut will head the State Government’s review of proposals for the long-awaited, drought-busting scheme first proposed in the 1930s.
The discredited, token, ALP mouthpiece Professor Ross Garnaut should stick to economics for which he could have been trained.
Economist Ross Garnaut with his book on how to get rid of carbon dioxide and metres high ocean rises
Most people will remember Garnaut’s dire predictions resulting from his inquiry into so-called global warming.
According to Garnaut’s wild predictions ten years ago, those living along the eastern coastline would now be snorkelling to their front doors under three metres of ocean.
Compounding her ridiculous policy thought bubbles, the Premier said she would spend millions of dollars planting trees on Cape York Peninsula. This stupid idea has enraged Cape York pastoralists who said they had spent a lifetime trying to get rid of excessive trees and thickening undergrowth to grow grass for stock.
One said there are “far many more trees on the Peninsula now than in 1770 when Captain Cook sailed past.”
Palaszczuk is a dead duck and she knows her time is up. She has two local dud MP’s, Cynthia Lui and Craig Crawford who have been unable to stem the outward flow of Labor support.
Cairnsnews can reveal neither has the support of their local branch members and both have found it extremely hard to find polling booth workers or to get any assistance with their campaigns.
Labor Member for Cook Cynthia Lui has lost all support from local ALP branches
Labor sources claim unions have been asked to help but there has been no local assistance forthcoming.
The source said polling booth volunteers from unions would probably come from southern Queensland, provided Covid rules allow it.
Crawford as Fire and Emergency Services Minister has managed to disenfranchise and lose more than 11,000 volunteers from the Rural Fire Service over mandatory blue cards and unrealistic, dangerous, bureaucratic changes to fire ground operations.
RFS members say morale has never been worse or have they ever lost so many volunteers because of political stupidity.
Lui has been missing in action from her electorate of Cook since she was first elected in 2017.
Cook stretches north from Mareeba to the PNG border. Earlier this year she made her frequent absence from the electorate permanent by moving her Mareeba office and staff to Cairns where she lives.
