Voters abandon Beattie ...
How will Premier Beattie deal with the recycled water for drinking question when faced with voters abandoning him?
From The Australian:
VOTERS are ready to punish the Beattie Government over Queensland's health crisis.
Leaked internal research shows that a majority of voters in marginal seats will vent their fury at the Labor Government at the next state election.
While Premier Peter Beattie will try to calm nervous backbenchers at a caucus retreat this week, the research reveals voters are ready to give Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg a go and believe the Coalition is best placed to solve problems with the public hospital system.
Mr Beattie's leadership is under a cloud and his hopes of a fourth term in power are fading, with only 30 per cent of marginal seat voters believing he deserves to stay on as Premier.
The confidential Labor research, undertaken before Christmas, reveals slightly more than 50 per cent of voters want to deliver a protest vote against Labor at the next election.
With the election only a year away, and 11 seats with margins of less than 5 per cent, Mr Beattie faces an uphill battle to regain support in knife-edge seats, where a swing of 7.3 per cent would leave Labor unable to govern in its own right.
The research shows a majority of voters believe Labor has neglected essential services -- once regarded as the party's strength -- and not focused enough on infrastructure at a time when Queensland is experiencing rapid population growth.
See - Voters abandoning Beattie.
posted by Concerned Ratepayer at 12:19 PM
2 Comments:
Beattie does his 5th Ministerial reshuffle in 18 months - a government in crisis!
Beattie sheds jobs as health bites
Feb 01 16:09
AAP
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie on Wednesday relinquished some of his duties, pledging to devote more time to fixing the state's beleaguered health system.
Mr Beattie announced ministerial changes with Deputy Premier Anna Bligh gaining Treasury, while Employment, Training and Industrial Relations Minister Tom Barton takes on Sport.
Backbencher Andrew Fraser, who already assists Mr Beattie as parliamentary secretary, will also help Health Minister Stephen Robertson.
In addition, water conservation will be given higher priority in the Natural Resources portfolio.
The reshuffle follows further doctor shortages at Caboolture Hospital, north of Brisbane, which has been forced to limit emergency facilities in recent weeks.
The health crisis plagued the Labor government for much of the last year, sparked by the Dr Death scandal over the alleged malpractice by surgeon Jayant Patel at Bundaberg Hospital.
Misgivings over the government's handling of health are stirring among Labor MPs holding marginal seats. They fear a severe voter backlash at the next election, due in early 2007.
Mr Beattie said the latest changes - which he described as minor - would allow him to devote more time to helping Mr Robertson fix the Health portfolio.
"There is no reshuffle, it is simply me devolving responsibility to other ministers," Mr Beattie said.
"I am going to give this my best shot. I will do everything I humanly can to resolve this health issue, even though the lack of doctors is not the fault of my government."
He continued to support Mr Robertson, who he described as "very able and hard working".
But Mr Beattie admitted Health was damaging his government's reputation and understood backbenchers "nervous" concerns.
"There is no doubt Health has been damaging to the government and to me personally," he said.
He said his focus on Health would show medical staff he was serious about fixing the problem and indicated pay increases for emergency workers were in the pipeline.
Opposition leader Lawrence Springborg said the latest changes, the fifth ministerial shuffle in the past 18 months, were merely cosmetic and symptomatic of an unstable government.
"The latest announcement of ministerial reshuffle from Premier Beattie is nothing more than the government rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic," Mr Springborg said.
"This government is in disarray."
Mr Springborg said Labor, which has been in power for all but two of the past 16 years, had presided over the decline in health services.
Opposition health spokesman Bruce Flegg said the changes would make little difference.
"The Premier's been the de facto Health Minister for six months now," Dr Flegg said.
"Minister Robertson has not proven himself capable of handling the portfolio."
3:36 PM, February 01, 2006
Premier Beattie changes name of Department of Natural Resources and Mines - that'll fix things!
"To ensure that the public service shares my priority in terms of water I will be changing the name of the Department of Natural Resources from Natural Resources and Mines to include water," he said"
How desperate can you get?!
3:47 PM, February 01, 2006
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