#qldpol #auspol I wasnt able to attend the March in March Cairns 2014 and sadly I wont make it to March In March Australia 2014 in Townsville tomorrow. I congratulate those who turned out, and here are a few of my thoughts: Australia is heading for a watershed moment. Wall to wall conservative governments threatens to take our state and our country backwards. When I say backwards, I mean back to a time when the 1950s housewife symbolised our way of life, when how much money a family person had dictated their ability to access quality health and education services, and when only our ties to England influenced our place in the global order. As a nation, we have lived through those times, we have learnt from those times, and we don’t ever want to go back to those times. Australia is a young country, with diverse peoples and a modern economy. Queensland is the embodiment of Australia’s progression from the past and into the future – although we would all submit, thanks to Campbell Newman’s hero Sir Joh it happened a lot later than it should have. After Wayne Goss ended 32 years of conservative rule in Queensland, our state emerged from the dark age and stepped into the light. Huge improvements to hospitals and schools, the introduction of services for those with a disability, the recognition of the LGBT community, the establishment of new, modern industries, and the opening up of our economy to the world, are just some of the major steps forward. But now, with Abbott in Canberra and Newman in Brisbane, those achievements are under threat. We’ve seen the Premier’s attack on individual freedoms through his unworkable VLAD laws – which would be scrapped by a Labor Government. We’ve seen the devastation of mass sackings around Queensland and the cuts to frontline services that are hurting Queensland families. We’ve seen the ‘I don’t give a stuff’ approach to switch our doctors onto individual contracts, aimed at destroying working conditions and forcing those who won’t sign out of public hospitals. And we know that they’re going back on their promise not to sell assets, despite the Queensland public sending a message to all political parties that they want to keep state assets in state hands. All this was based on a so-called ‘independent’ Commission of Audit’ run by that noted independent, Peter Costello. And so what’s Mr Abbott doing? Running his own so-called ‘independent’ Commission of Audit, run by those other noted independents, the Business Council of Australia. We will see a repeat of what we’ve seen in Queensland – mass sackings, more cuts to frontline services, more asset sales. We’ll see more attacks on things like the pension and disability support, and more ways for the battlers to subsidise the big end of town. Here in Queensland, we join thousands of others from around the country that are standing up to Tony Abbott and his conservative ‘Mini-Me’s’ in each state and demanding they put an end to their ideological attacks. We have all fought long and hard to build a modern Australia. We will keep fighting to keep it that way.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 07:26:17 +0000
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