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Queensland Upper House abolition a chance for reform
The Parliamentary Committee system is a failure and cannot criticise the government of the day
Tomorrow marks 100 years since the formal abolition of the Legislative Council, the former Upper House, which left Queensland with the only unicameral state parliamentary system in the country.
Katter’s Australian Party Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter said, while the last thing people wanted was more politicians, the occasion marked an opportune time to reflect on the absolute centralisation of political power in Queensland and the possibilities of reform.
”We first must ask – is there a problem to be solved in Queensland politics? Obviously I believe there is,” he said.
“There is a global trend away from the two-party system in modern democracies, but here we are behind the times and still wedded to a political landscape that doesn’t serve people adequately.
“Perhaps a more effective way of dealing with the problems inherent to our two-party, unicameral system is a more balanced spread of power across minor parties.
“As the real advocates for regional Queensland, the KAP is able to speak with authority on the failings of the current system as we are acutely aware of the deficiencies in funding and political focus that result from the status quo.
“These issues are exactly what had led to us calling for a separate state in the past.
“I am still not sold on the answer to these issues being the reinstatement of the Upper House and the extra politicians that come with it, but the KAP would certainly be open to discussions around reforming the system to ensure integrity of the government and to prevent the democratic process from being manipulated and exploited.”
Mr Katter said the Queensland public was not being adequately served by current political structures.
“The Committee system, which Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk recently said was a pillar of Queensland’s systemic anti-corruption measures, has a tendency to operate as a political apparatus and is, by design, incapable of effectively critiquing the Government of the day,” he said.
“While the committees do undertake very valuable work, anyone who tries to suggest they are apolitical and therefore capable of truly holding the Government of the day to account is kidding themselves.”
Queensland’s Parliamentary Committees, which in place of an elected Upper House examine legislation and conduct public inquiries as per the Parliament of Queensland Act 2001, are ultimately controlled by the Government (in this case, the Palaszczuk Labor Government).
The Chair, who adjudicates all meetings, is a Government MP who is appointed by the Leader of the House.
The committees are then made up of at least 50 per cent Government MPs, as well as Opposition and crossbenchers depending on the political composition of the Legislative Assembly at the time.[1]
Public briefings and hearings are made public and are televised, but internal decision-making is kept secret.
MPs are then considered to be in contempt of parliament if they divulge anything discussed in private.[2]
Editor: Cairns News over a decade has noticed a trend by readers to abolish state governments and replaced them with a federal system utilising regional local government councils to formulate policies for their regions. One size does not fit all. The Commonwealth should be returned with the restoration of Constitutional government.
Hope this helps those seeking justice
-contributed
Letter sent last March, they were warned! They can’t say they were just doing their job this time and it’s time they were held accountable.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1koXe2gMQoOeWJCnpZ53nfWTD7gI2iiM40tWoR6LFJpI/edit
States must protect people from potential harms arising from and during scientific research. States have the obligation to protect people from being used or exploited in harmful scientific experiments, as well as the obligation to set safeguards to prevent harm caused by research or experimentation.
The length of this letter is due to the extensive use of direct extracts from various official documents. All the legal information regarding informed consent is here and it is in you and your centre’s/departments best interest to heed this warning. A media release outlining the contents of this letter, as well as the intent behind sending it, will be sent to all major and community media outlets for the sake of transparency.
As we have seen in the past, medical professionals can be held criminally responsible for their role in medical experiments gone wrong. It is for this reason we are sending this letter to inform you today and our only intention is to save lives by ensuring medical professionals are doing their best to adhere to the applicable laws and do no harm during this mass clinical trial. Medical professionals don’t always get it right, but we hope that, armed with this information, unnecessary mistakes will be avoided.
From the outset, we need to be clear on an important aspect of the vaccine rollout: the federal minister for health, Greg Hunt has described the vaccine rollout as the “largest clinical trial, the largest global vaccination trial ever”.
Read the rest of this entryKAP tells state Labor, LNP to pull their fingers out and do some real work
STATE Parliaments across Australia have not only become platforms for the new medical dictatorships, but their role to create, scrutinize and pass legislation has been undermined by the same crowd pushing their daily fake case numbers and vaccination figures.
In Victoria MPs have been shut out of parliament if they haven’t taken the shots and in Queensland, according to Katter’s Australian Party MPs, the major parties have been doing little to nothing for months on end.
KAP Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter says rural and regional MPs are sick of travelling down to Brisbane for sitting weeks to do “basically nothing”. “We have more interesting and worthwhile discussions down at our local pubs,” he said.
Mr Katter said the minor party, which has three sitting MPs and 1.5 parliamentary staffers, has committed to introducing a minimum of five pieces of legislation into the House each year.
This year, the party has already introduced the Environmental and Other Legislation (Reversal of Great Barrier Reef Protection Measures) Amendment Bill 2021, the Working with Children (Indigenous Communities) Amendment Bill and the Food (Labelling of Seafood) Amendment Bill 2021. There are also another couple in the works.
“Politicians need to work for their supper,” Rob Katter said. “Sitting hours have been cut back, we have less and less speaking spots and time for genuine debate and there’s also hardly any legislation – let alone decent legislation – on the agenda.
“But now the KAP is committing to lift the game and counteract that – we want to deliver more for not only our own electorates in the north, but for the whole State.”
Despite having approximately 220 parliamentary/ministerial staff, Labor has introduced just 20 Bills into the Parliament this year. The LNP, which has about 10 per cent of the Government figure in terms of staff, has introduced zero.
Mr Katter said taxpayers were footing the bill for all these staffers, and there was no way they were getting ‘bang for buck’. “The KAP was vehemently opposed to the introduction of four-year parliamentary terms because we said if the Government can’t succeed in fulfilling their agenda in three years, then they don’t deserve another one,” he said.
“We have been vindicated now by the lack of activity of the last 12 months. We are all losing out because we now have to witness a non-performing government have free reign for four full years every term.”
Hinchinbrook MP Nick Dametto said the LNP’s recent legislative record had been dismal. “Queenslanders are looking for an alternative government and they are looking for an opportunity to decide who to back at the next State Election,” he said.
“The fact is, unless you’re showing people what you’re willing to put in from the Opposition or the cross bench, how can you prove what you would be like if given the power? This is a call-out to the LNP – we are calling on the Opposition to start lifting their weight.
“What we’re seeing now is a lazy Opposition and it’s letting this government get away with putting 20 Bills in a year when the average is 40-50.”
Hill MP Shane Knuth said KAP had a proven track-record of successfully pushing legislation through the Parliament that benefitted rural and regional communities.
Check if your member of parliament voted for Labor’s baby killing laws
See if your local MP voted for the worst abortion laws in the world
A list has been published of current Queensland MPs who voted for some of the most grotesque abortion laws in the world.
Few voters know the shocking fact that the “Termination of Pregnancy Act 2018” does not allow pain relief for aborted babies.
Worse still, it means that 204 born-alive babies (after an abortion procedure) were left to die without being given life-saving medical treatment. (This statistic of 204 was extracted from the Health Minister Cameron Dick by a Parliamentary “Question on Notice” no. 779 by MP Mark Robinson (LNP).
If this sort of thing happened to animals the RSPCA would be protesting.
Queensland Voters have the opportunity to protest by numbering every square and putting LAST on their Ballot Paper the MPs listed below who voted for this extreme legislation.
List of Current MP’s from LABOR, GREENS & INDEPENDENT
who voted in QLD Parliament on 17.10.2018 for bad Abortion Law
Leeanne Enoch / Algester (ALP) Corrine McMillan / Mansfield (ALP)
Bart Mellish / Aspley (ALP) Bruce Saunders / Maryborough (ALP)
Chris Whiting / Bancroft (ALP) Grace Grace / McConnel (ALP)
Craig Crawford / Barron River (ALP) Mark Bailey / Miller (ALP)
Di Farmer / Bulimba (ALP) Mark Ryan / Morayfield (ALP)
Michael Healy / Cairns (ALP) Jess Pugh / Mount Ommaney (ALP)
Don Brown / Capalaba (ALP) Cynthia Lui / Cook (ALP)
Mark Furner / Ferny Grove (ALP) Steven Miles / Murrumba (ALP)
Meaghan Scanlon / Gaven (ALP) Sandy Bolton / Noosa (Independent)
Glenn Butcher / Gladstone (ALP) Leanne Linard / Nudgee (ALP)
Joe Kelly / Greenslopes (ALP) Nikki Boyd / Pine Rivers (ALP)
Annastacia Palaszczuk / Inala (ALP – Premier) Yvette D’Ath / Redcliffe (ALP)
Jennifer Howard / Ipswich (ALP) Kim Richards / Redlands (ALP)
Jim Madden / Ipswich West (ALP) Barry O’Rourke / Rockhampton (ALP)
Charis Mullen / Jordan (ALP) Stirling Hinchliffe / Sandgate (ALP)
Brittany Lauga / Keppel (ALP) Jackie Trad /South Brisbane (ALP)
Joan Pease / Lytton (ALP) Mick de Brenni / Springwood (ALP)
Melissa McMahon / Macalister (ALP) Shane King / Kurwongbah (ALP)
Julieanne Gilbert / Mackay (ALP) Duncan Pegg / Stretton (ALP)
Michael Berkman / Maiwar (Greens) Aaron Harper / Thuringowa (ALP)
Peter Russo / Toohey (ALP) Scott Stewart / Townsville (ALP)
Shannon Fentiman / Waterford (ALP) Cameron Dick / Woodridge (ALP)
Steve Minnikin / Chatsworth (LNP) Tim Nicholls / Clayfield (LNP)
ABSTAINED – Linus Power / Logan (ALP) SPEAKER – Curtis Pitt / Mulgrave (ALP – did not vote as Speaker)
All three Katters Australian Party members vigorously opposed the legislation.
https://cairnsnews.org/2020/10/07/the-baby-killers-of-the-queensland-labor-party/
https://cairnsnews.org/2020/10/25/the-vile-baby-killers-of-the-queensland-labor-party/
Nanny state blue cards could catch Bill Shorten
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, under amendments to “blue card’ child contact laws, could be prevented from visiting schools or children’s sports events in Queensland.
The Queensland Parliament today is debating ‘blue card’ amendments in a move to cast a wider net to cover more professionals and others who through their work or sport come into contact with children under 18.
Shorten could get caught up in Queesland Labor’s nanny state blue card amendments
The new proposals will have some unintended consequences in their megalomaniacal thrust to prevent professionals such as photographers, personal trainers and even politicians from having contact with children.
The Labor ‘hero’ Shorten would be caught up in the net over persistent rape allegations from 1986 made by then 16 year old Kathy Sherriff.
The allegations were dismissed at the time.
Her latest Facebook post says she has engaged Barrister Peter Faris QC to force Victoria Police to investigate new evidence.
The allegations were again raised in 2013 by journalist Shane Dowling when he named Shorten as being under investigation by police.
Kathy Sheriff’s complaint was again dismissed by police in 2014 for lack of evidence claiming there was no reasonable chance of a conviction. They did add if more evidence was to come to light or new witnesses were found the case could be reopened.
She said further evidence had been found and with her barrister recently visited police asking for the case to be re-investigated.
Myopic Victoria Police, which can’t find black African gangs robbing, pillaging and assaulting white people will probably struggle trying to investigate Sherriff’s allegations.
In any case the major media has been most reluctant to publish any of Shorten’s sordid sexual peccadillos.
Cairns News 