John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Let me say in reply to the question asked by the member for Kennedy that I certainly agree that the least qualified government in Australia to give lectures about efficiency is the Queensland government—although it is a near-run thing with the government of the state that I come from, I have to tell you.

I am aware of a lot of concern, especially in rural Queensland, about the arbitrary and very dictatorial way in which the Queensland government has declared that certain councils are inefficient and, whether the councils like it or not, they are going to be amalgamated or abolished. I think it reminds all of us that, when it comes to exercising central power, state governments of Australia of both political persuasions are infinitely worse than federal governments. When I hear state premiers complaining about the centralist tendencies of the national government, I wonder that they have no shame. When it comes to dealing with others, I have watched the views of local residents in the state that I come from being overridden with a flick of the fingers, with the stroke of a pen by the minister for local government—or whatever title he romances under—Mr Sartor, in New South Wales. I saw it happen in Victoria under a government of my own political persuasion, and I think some of the forced amalgamations in Victoria wreaked a very heavy political price on the then Victorian government.

I should tell the House that a rally involving more than 1,000 people, many of whom had travelled 700 kilometres, was held at Barcaldine this morning. I am told that Rugby League legend Shane Webcke led the protest march to the tree of knowledge, where the Mayor of Barcaldine, Robert Chandler, and concerned residents of Queensland laid wreaths in protest at the Queensland Labor government’s plans. There will be no right of appeal for councils or residents once the decision has been made by Premier Beattie to close the councils; his forced amalgamations have the capacity to affect some 45,000 existing jobs in Queensland—and the member for Kennedy asks me: will we take an interest in this matter? Can we do anything? Let me say that I am already taking a very big interest in this matter, because I think this is an abuse of power. I think you ought to talk to people. These premiers every day of the week are saying, ‘Canberra is running roughshod over our rights and our interests,’ but, if a local council gets in their way, they essentially rub it out—they put down a regulation; they deal with them in a most contemptuous fashion.

I think that the Premier of Queensland has misread the mood and the temper of his own state. My sense, as I move around this country, is that people, so far from developing a lesser sense of local identity, are developing a greater sense of local identity. What they are really saying is that they care about their country and they care about their local community and sometimes, if they have enough time for it, they might care about whatever occupies the middle. But the thing that they worry about most is their nation’s welfare and their community’s welfare. I think many Queenslanders will feel very angry about this, and many Queenslanders will wonder why the Leader of the Opposition, himself a Queenslander, has remained silent on the subject.

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.

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