Senator the Hon Ian Macdonald

Welcome to the November 2008 edition of Northern Opinion Online.

There has to be good news somewhere………
 
If you’re into sport, then take comfort from the Rugby League World Cup – Australia will do well.

In entertainment, what promises to be a blockbuster film “Australia” – filmed partially in Bowen - is about to premiere.

And if politics is your passion, then changes are happening in the West with the new Liberal Government and in Queensland, the new Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP) looks like a winner with a raft of class candidates already in the field.

But apart from that, gloom and doom and bad news seem to be the rule.

Do you have the very distinct feeling that the Government has absolutely no idea of what to do as we lurch from one crisis to another?

Confidence, so essential in any of life’s endeavours seems to have disappeared as quickly as one’s superannuation.

It’s not a partisan political comment, but I’m sorry - neither I nor any of the many people I have spoken to in recent days has any belief that Kevin Rudd or Wayne Swan know what they are doing.

And having spent some time now on the Senate Enquiry into the National Broadband Network, I am becoming increasingly pessimistic that there will be any tenderers when the bidding closes at the end of November.

Telstra are reported as saying they won’t play if they are forced to separate their ‘network’ functions from their retail functions.  And other possible bidders are saying they won’t be in it if there is no ‘separation’ regulated.

And how any of the bidders can bid when they don’t know the regulatory rules, is beyond me.  Minister Stephen Conroy is a nice enough bloke (I can never work out how he got the reputation as the ‘hard man’ of the Victorian Labor Right) but I think he is completely out of his depth in trying to get pre-election spin about national communications system into a competitive national broadband network.

For us in the North of Australia, a speedy and cost effective broadband service is essential if we are to develop our potential for the good of the nation (and ourselves!) but I have no confidence that this will happen any time soon.

But back to the national economy.

I can’t believe Australia’s sycophantic print media – headlines like “Rudd’s Rescue” and praise for his so-called solution to the freezing of funds in our superannuation funds, very conveniently overlook that it was Rudd’s ill-conceived, poorly thought-through earlier decisions that caused the problem in the first place.

And Rudd’s talking up of inflation at the beginning of this year, urging the increase of interest rates, show that he simply has no appreciation of the Australian economy and its part in the global scene.  The actions of the Reserve Bank in relation to interest rates during the last federal election and since, leave one with doubts as to its competence and independence.

It’s no wonder the opinion polls continue to favour Rudd when all you get from particularly the News Limited media is fawning grovel from the Canberra journos and opinion writers

Thanks Heavens for Andrew Bolt – the only investigative intelligent and uncaptured print journo around – perhaps the only reason you would ever buy Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper – but recommended for this reason alone.  He has a blog at  www.blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/

I’m told at Senate Estimates Committee that the ABC’s Parliamentary and News Network (PNN or News Radio) is about to launch in Townsville – perhaps the only major population centre in Australia still not having access the parliamentary broadcasts - Mount Isa, with a fifth of the Townsville population, will be on air before Townsville – most of the rest of Australia has had this basic service for years.

It has only taken me thirteen years of pushing (even during our own Government) to get News Radio to the North.  

I was always keen to have a direct connection between the northern voters and their parliamentary representatives in Canberra so people could listen to what the pollies actually said without the editing and editorialising that usually emanates from the ABC and print media these days.

And I used to think the News Radio network was the most balanced of all the ABC news and current affairs outlets, but alas, since the advent of the Rudd Government, the programming and editing of News Radio has gone the way of all other southern originating ABC productions.

I hasten to add that Rural ABC Radio (Local Radio) is excellent and more balanced, and their Heywire Program - giving young people in the bush a say and a week in Canberra - is just brilliant and very worthwhile.  And some of their radio journo are professional.  AM and news reporter Louise Yaxley is an obvious exception to the run-of-the- mill political journo because, although I don’t often agree with her, she tries to be, and is usually, balanced.  This commentary will probably be the kiss of death to her career!

As the Federal Opposition’s Spokesman on Northern Australia, I have been following with great interest the Rudd Government’s proposals for Northern Australia.

Again a great deal of spin before the election with promises of an “Office of Northern Australia” which was really going to do the right thing for the most productive part of our nation.

But Estimates Committee questioning reveals that the Office of Northern Australia is simply the renaming of two existing Departmental Offices in Townsville and Darwin – with the same staff, money and offices!

And the Northern Land and Water Taskforce, a genuine and rightly named ‘initiative’ of the Howard Government - on which I was proud to serve – has been reformed with new appointments highlighting the Rudd governments capture by the bureaucracy and politically correct “industry”.

It’s been my pleasure to have met up again with many leaders of Northern Australia in two Northern Economic Development Conferences in the past months organized in Townsville and Cairns by, respectively, the Townsville City Council and the Far North Queensland Area Consultative Committee.

My website www.senatormacdonald.org contains my address to the Townsville Conference and the media releases on my website give my view of the lack of participation by the Federal Minister at the Cairns Conference.

The Northern Australia Forums, which I initiated during my time as the Regional Services Minister, were the precursor to these very worthwhile gatherings, and activities like the Alice to Darwin Railway, the Regional Partnerships Programs, and the Northern Taskforce to name just a few, show that actions can have results when you involve northerners in the process.

An important Conference – the Flinders River Development Forum – will take place in November. This will unlock many of the answers for greater irrigated agriculture in the mid-northern Queensland area around Richmond and Hughenden.  Hosted by the two Councils in the area, the three-day conference will examine among other things, why sustainable water projects like the O’Connell Creek Diversion at Richmond and the Mt Beckford Storage at Hughenden are not proceeding.  I look forward to getting good policy ideas from that gathering.

 I am encouraged that we may well see a return to decent government in Queensland, sooner than expected, by the quality of candidates being selected by the LNP to take on Labor incumbents in the North.

In the seat of Townsville, Murray Hurst, former Cowboys coach and former Assistant Queensland State of Origin Coach, has been pre-selected. In Thuringowa, Business Analyst and former Army Officer, Tony Elms, will be taking the battle up to Labor’s Craig Wallace, and in Mundingburra, the LNP candidate is local Economist, Colin Dwyer.

Murray, Tony and Colin will make excellent representatives in the Parliament, joining our existing MPs – Rosemary Menkens in Burdekin, Shane Knuth in Charters Towers, and Andrew Cripps in Hinchinbrook

 In the Far North region, former policeman Vic Black (Mulgrave), former Army Officer and banker, Joel Harrop (Cairns), and heritage-campaigner and life-long Cairns resident Wendy Richardson (Barron River) will give the Cairns region real impact in the State House.

Former Nebo Mayor Bob Oakes and local GP Paul Joice will lead the charge in the Mackay region, joining incumbents from that area, Vaughan Johnson and Ted Malone.

I am also delighted to see some of the candidates bobbing up elsewhere in the State, and particularly some friends of mine in Jarrod Bleijie in Kawana and Shane Moon in Pumicestone.

The Financial crisis engulfing our country is worrying to all of us.  However the one brighter note is that in Malcolm Turnbull we have someone who actually has the knowledge, expertise and ability to work through the difficult times.

If only Mr Rudd had taken more notice of what Malcolm Turnbull suggested, rather than trying to play political one-upmanship, we may not have gotten into some of the mess we are already in. Mr Turnbull’s offer of collaboration, with full briefings from the economic agencies, should be taken up by Mr Rudd in the interests of Australia.   

LET ME KNOW

If there are issues you believe the Federal Opposition should be investigating, please do not hesitate to drop me a note.

As a Senator, the whole of the State is my constituency, and I am happy to help in any way possible.

I also welcome your feedback, positive or negative, on any of the issues raised in this online newsletter.

Ian Macdonald
Liberal Senator for Queensland
Opposition Spokesman on Northern Australia.