(12.45 p.m.)—The most arbitrary disenfranchising of what are probably the most vulnerable communities in Queensland is about to be undertaken by the Queensland Labor government. At a time when we should be encouraging Queenslanders to decentralise and removing the pressure on water, the Labor government is giving every indication that the only place to live is Brisbane. In Queensland, the Labor government, which is supposed to look after the worker, is about to put many jobs, household incomes, house repayments and hopes under threat. It is going to drown the lives of those on the Mary River and create a poverty corner at Cunnamulla. The Labor government has perfected the ruthless delivery of its arbitrary nastiness. It has devolved into a regime that partakes in a regional annihilation of the social fabric of hope in sections of Queensland. Labor has proved that all can descend through the folly of self-aggrandisement to verge on the tyrannical. A government which spends hundreds of millions of dollars on art galleries in a city that is running out of water, and which then distracts attention with a Mugabe-like attack to clear the regional council squatters, is no longer a vestige of the just deliberation of power but has become an anathema.

Hundreds of thousands of anxious Queenslanders—from the coastal strip of Noosa to the Tasmania sized shire of Boulia—are waiting to see if the character of their communities will be irrevocably damaged by the Beattie government’s plan to forcibly amalgamate their councils. A seven-member reform commission will hand down a report in August. This is the axe hanging over the head of many local communities in Australia’s most decentralised state. Queenslanders are not unusual in their desire to have a government that is close and responsive to the people. Local government is all about Queenslanders having the freedom to solve their own problems locally. They do not want the ever-present hand of a distant government, state or federal, treating them like children and telling them how to organise garbage collection or where to build roads. In essence, there are many who believe that this is clear sign that the community of interest has now diverged so far that they must ask whether they need to have new states or new premiers to lead them. Alternatively, others ask whether we need states at all. Both questions are motivated by the Labor government’s butchering of the ‘fair go for all’ Queensland ethos.

Local government is older than parliamentary government. Our political institutions arose out of the consent given by local communities to the larger entities—whether state or federal. This was clearly understood by founding fathers such our first prime minister, Edmund Barton,. During the Constitutional Convention debate in Adelaide in 1897, Barton quoted from the British historian Edward Freeman. Freeman believed that true federations were unions of pre-existing city states. Barton’s use of Freeman’s quote at the Constitutional Convention in 1897 is worth repeating in the context of a state government seeking to destroy local representation:

The greater aggregate was simply organised after the model of the lesser elements, out of whose union it was formed. In fact, for the political unit, for the atom which joined with its fellow atoms to form the political whole, we must go to areas yet smaller ... That unit, that atom, the true kernel of all our political life must be looked for ... in England—smile not while I say it—in the parish vestry.

What Barton and Freeman understood is that other levels of government derive their legitimacy from the smaller units. What we see in Queensland at the moment is not inspiring but, rather, dictating—confusing strength with belligerence and riding roughshod over the vulnerable. In common-law countries, local government did predate parliamentary government. While kings unified England politically, there has always been a strong tradition of respect for local self-government. In the United States, there is a particularly strong tradition of this as people went out and settled regions which they effectively governed themselves. This has also been a factor in the Australian experience. Yes, we are parochial about where we live and we do not like others telling us how to govern our local affairs. This is steeped in our consciousness from hundreds of years of local government in Western communities. What is happening in Queensland today is a reversal of that history and a progression of what began in Queensland under a previous Labor political figure.

Queensland towns were once better endowed with local courthouses; clerks of the court; branch railway lines, preserving local roads from being carved up by heavy trucks; two-person police stations, which were open on weekends; and local hospital boards. The demise of these local services was instigated during the Queensland cabinet office tenure of its then departmental head Mr Kevin Rudd. The Beattie government’s assault on local government is a repeat performance of an ALP government of yesteryear which also did not care about rural or regional Queenslanders. The instigater of this gutting of regional and rural Queensland, whose legacy lives on in the Beattie government’s move to further damage communities by amalgamating councils, is now seeking to lead the Australian government.

It is worth revisiting how Mr Rudd paved the way for today’s council amalgamations. Forty-six courthouses were closed, under Mr Rudd. They included: Allora, Aramac, Augathella, Babinda, Bell, Biggenden, Boonah, Calen, Cambooya, Canungra, Capella, Cardwell, Carmila, Cecil Plains, Clifton, Collinsville, Cooyar, Crows Nest, Dimbulah, Edward River, Eidsvold, Eton, Eulo, Finch Hatton, Forsayth, Gin Gin, Biru, Goombungee, Gordonvale, Harrisville, Helidon, Herberton, Home Hill, Inglewood, Injune, Jandowae, Jericho, Jondaryan, Kilcoy, Kilkivan, Killarney, Kumbia, Laidley, Malanda, Many Peaks, Marburg, Millaa Millaa, Millmerran, Miriam Vale, Miles, Mitchell, Monto, Morven, Mount Garnet, Mount Larcom, Mount Molloy, Mount Morgan, Mount Perry, Moura, Mundubbera, Nebo, Peranga, Prairie, Proston, Ravenshoe, Rolleston, Rosewood, Silkwood, Springsure, Surat, Texas, Thallon, Theodore, Tiaro, Torrens Creek, Wandoan, Wondai, Wowan, Yarraman, Yelarbon and Yungaburra. I put them on the record to show the sort of gutting that Mr Rudd has been responsible for.

Rail closures included the Inglewood to Texas line, the Takura line, Pialba to Urangan, Melawondi to Brooloo, Goolara to Theodore, Cobarra to Greenvale, Cloncurry to Kajabbi, Duchess to Dajarra, Hendon to Allora, Dalby to Bell, Oakey to Cecil Plains, Rannes to Wowan and Murgon to Byee. Only widespread condemnation and backlash saved more than one-third of the state’s rail lines. In addition to rail closures and associated loss of jobs, eight rail positions were cut at Home Hill, six positions were cut at Ayr, 23 positions were cut at Cloncurry, and the closure of the Townsville rail workshop resulted in the loss of 420 jobs. Ipswich and Banyo rail workshops were also closed. This is from the party that is supposed to protect the worker.

Six hundred jobs were cut at the department of primary industries. DPI suffered a 20 per cent reduction in its budget. DPI offices were closed at Miles, Mitchell, Millmerran and Wandoan. Extension officers were removed from country towns and research stations were closed. Police stations were unmanned on weekends. One-man police stations were closed and two-man stations became one-man stations. Four hundred and three teaching positions were lost. Many small country schools were closed. Many country school principals were either transferred or sacked. Funds for rural school libraries were cut. Rural TAFE projects wer