So, Whats New With You?
Isn’t it amazing what a new day will bring. In the last 24 hours I have caught up with an old mate of mine.
I first met him when he was running for a State seat for the Libs. He lost but not too badly. Nothing to be disgraced about but then we have kept in touch over the years.
He is decidedly more ‘wet’ than I but we agreed with more than we disagreed. Over the years he has lost a great deal of confidence with the Liberal Party. Left the party and decided to concentrate on making money rather than political accomplishments. Somewhat akin to my own lack of faith in them. We both prefer them over the ALP but we tend to hold our nose and vote rather than doing it out of any particular fervour.
Seems like He is keen to look again at a political position in the newly created Moreton Bay Shire Council. Still have to look at what could be done , but watch this space.
I haven’t really discussed with my loyal reader my views on the ALP amalgamations in Queensland.
There is absolutely no doubt that some regions badly needed to be merged but what the hell were they thinking of in combining three councils like Pine Rivers, Caboolture and Redcliffe? I don’t think you could get three more divergent areas and regions had you tried.
You have solid suburbia in Pine Rivers, Country and rural regions up in Caboolture and over in Redcliffe, you have a tourist and retirement mecca.
How can you possibly combine the needs of Montville hippies, with the urban sprawl of Albany Creek and North Lakes, and the old retired union boilermakers of Redcliffe.
But despite these almost insurmountable issues, we have the simple logistics of managing the area of three large Federal Seats with one local council administration. When you get a chance just have a look at a map of the new area that the ALP expects one council to look after. Albany creek in the South, Montville up in the north, the Dam out to the west and the coast in the East.
If you were to drive the whole electorate you would be looking at a full tank of fuel. Probably more if you tried to follow the border.
You also have three regions and 330,000 odd residents to look after.
From a purely psephological viewpoint, it will make an interesting challenge for any one person to meld the three together enough to become mayor. 137,000 in Pine Shire, 139,000 in Caboolture and 50,000 or so in Redcliffe. I would suggest it is a bridge too far for the current Redcliffe Mayor to win from such a small base. I would suggest it would have to be a candidate who can get the majority of their own ‘home county’ plus a sizable proportion of the other two.
Whatever happens, it should make fascinating viewing.