Love, Labor's Lost

There's nothing like a losing little by-election or two to provide that thumping post revellry hangover borne of a three terms-in-power 'drunken' spree.

In the latest bout of intemperate behaviour, the Government must face up to the severe damage it has wrought to the state's health system.

The apparently unstopped Queensland Premier Peter Beattie and his team will have that sick to the stomach feeling that gets worse no matter how cautiously one moves. The furry mouth, that no matter how hard you brush and clean, lingers with you for days.

Political reality has bitten hard for the left leaning party in our fair state. The Premier, whose hangover must be worst of all, makes the familiar vow that he's very, very sorry and it won't happen again.

When the Dr [Jayant] Patel issues were drawn to my attention we had two choices: we either did the coward's way out and that is we tried to hide it, which is not the Labor way, or we decided to lift the lid on it and appoint a royal commission with a fiercely independent commissioner, which is what we've done," he said.

"Now that was the right thing to do, it was the moral thing to do but I knew that we would pay a terrible political price for doing it."

Of course, it would be far more convincing if Beattie stopped behaving like the alcoholic who is always sorry for his actions after the event.

Sadly, there are always those who will mother the intemperate, who shake their heads, cluck sympathetically and offer only
the mildest reproof.

Mr Beattie has not filled Queenslanders with any confidence that he runs a team – a government. When a problem arises, he is the one who takes over. His style is to not to trust others to demonstrate whether or not they are worth their pay, and nobody can carry the workload he has taken on for very long.

And then hand over a damp wash cloth and go there, there it could have been worse:

But the fact that an excellent candidate like Caltabiano just managed to scrape in illuminates a couple of political truisms: The health crisis has bitten the Government but not as deeply as many – most of them in the Labor Party – feared.

And that is despite the fact that swings of 11 and 14 percent respectively is a bold rebuff by the electorate in what are supposed to be 'safe, Labor heartland' seats.

-- Nora

Our friend Special Sauce has other things to say about the election.