The MBRC Update
The great mass of the Great State of Queensland goes to the polls in just over two weeks to decide who they want managing their Roads, Rates and Rubbish for the next four years.
There is a special feel in the air to this election as their is so much additional baggage attached, due to the unilateral decision taken by the Bligh Labor Government to overide the history of the State and impose amalgamations on the councils. We halved the number of councils, but on the up side, we doubled the number of people who consider Captain Bligh and her cronies to be the worst thing to ever happen to the state since cane toads were introduced. It is a signature example of the old adage that Every Cloud really does have a silver lining.
In our new hodgepodge Moreton Bay Regional Council, on the outskirts of Brisbane’s north, we have replaced three pretty good councils, with one mess that will take at least two terms to sort out. So far, we don’t have a single council chambers, nor even a single employemnt agreement between the workforces of the three councils. We are combining about 40 divisions down to 12 and spreading the borders far and wide so in one case the local councillor has a larger area to cover than the State Representative for the region.
But enough of the Hanrohans, it is going to be messy, but at least we can watch and laugh.
The field for the Mayor of the Region is five of which three are really viable candidates. Joy Lieshman is the current Mayor of Caboolture Shire and she should pick up a fair swag of that area. The other two potential candidates are the Current Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Redcliffe City Council. Alan Sutherland and Peter Hueston respectively are running a pretty good race but they are coming off of very small bases of support and will tend to split their heartlands. This means that it will come down to who takes the lions share of Pine Shire in the vote. The other two candidates are Brian Galvin from Pine Shire who is having a few dramas concerning a payment made to an ex council employee for sexual harrassment and so probably has more on his mind than campaigning, and some other ALP stooge who is using his membership of the ALP as a selling tool. Considering the ALP is the party that has forced the amalgamation on to an unwilling region of which over 70% disagrees, and the fact that the ALP is proving at a State level to be unable to run a chook raffle effectively, I can’t see him as much of a threat except to maybe the terminally insane sector of the electorate. But that is a given demographic for the ALP, so I don’t think this tells us anything.
At the local Division level we have a wide open race. Bases of support have changed for sitting Councillors and boundaries have changed. This means that we have potentially the widest range of possible outcomes for years. Traditionally, incumbency was the gold standard of Council elections. If you were in, and hadn’t stolen too much or shafted too many, you were pretty much going to get back in. The only races that I have been really watching were Divisions 4, 9 and 10. Division 4 will be the least interesting as the likelihood of terminally insane Councillor Christine Monsour getting back are very high. Cr Monsour has a fairly identifiable schtick in the way she approaches Council meetings. Every three months or so, she will find a particularly inane decision to chuck a wobbly about and consequently get kicked out of Council Chambers. You can almost set your watch to her hystrionics. They will last exactly long enough to get the local rags to cover her tirade then she will pretend to be stable again. She has been doing this for years and no doubt it will get her over the line again.
Division 10 is a two horse race and the sitting councillor Bathersby has a real challenger for the first time in years. It will be worth watching.
In Division 9, there is a change in the air. Mike Charlton is running again but he can’t rely on his traditional base anymore as he has lost a sizeable chunk of it. The new division takes in a great swathe of Brendale, Eaton’s Hill and Strathpine that he hasn’t had to concern himself with previously. In fact,the largest area of the new Division is now outside his old Albany Creek region. Up against him are two challengers, John Dangerfield and Dennis Ride. Both have been working very hard on the region and should give Charlton a real shake this time around. This coupled with Charlton’s connection to the sexual harrasment payoff, means that he has a hill to climb to keep his job in the new council.
All in all, it should be a fascinating time for the region and the State as a whole.
##Cross posted to Qld Decides##