The recent restructure of the Queensland Police force has starkly
highlighted the very serious problem of how slavish adherence to
party politics actually hurts democracy. What has happened
on the Sunshine Coast where we are losing our Regional Police headquarters to be run
from an office 500km away is the perfect example of how wrong
this policy of political party dictatorship is.
Every MP bar one (Peter Wellington, member for Nicklin is an
Independent) in the Sunshine Coast area is an LNP member.
They are David Gibson (Gympie), Andrew Powell (Glass House), Glen
Elmes (Noosa), Jarrod Bleijie (Kawana), Mark McArdle (Caloundra),
Steve Dickson (Buderim), and Fiona Simpson (Maroochydore).
Many of these MP’s are also front benchers. You would think
with that sort of representation in the Queensland State
Parliament that we would be sitting pretty as a region?
Not so, in a high growth area, we are losing our Regional Police
Headquarters? Considering the stats that came out of the
recent “State of Australian Cities 2012” I
find it very difficult to believe that this can be a good
move. The two points below from this Federal Report
illustrate why this closure should NOT be happening:
We have the 3rd highest rate of population
growth: “The Sunshine Coast’s population increased from
186,391 in 2001 to 241,643 in 2011. This represents a growth rate
of 2.6 per cent, the third highest rate of Australia’s major
cities and higher than the national average of 1.5 per
cent.”
We are the tenth largest city in Australia :
“With this above-average growth rate, the Sunshine Coast has
overtaken Hobart to become Australia’s tenth largest city and is
now home to 5.4 per cent of Queenslanders and one per cent of
Australians.”
So how can it be feasible that the 10th largest city with the 3rd
highest rate of population not have a Regional Police
Headquarters? AND with the powerful representation in State
Parliament that this area has, how can this be allowed to
happen? Party Politics is the answer. Our MP’s are
beholden to Campbell Newman and the LNP.
Now I don’t know all these MP’s, I have heard from others that
David Gibson is a really caring bloke who has tried very hard to
help people with disabilities in Gympie. I know my Dad
liked Fiona Simpson because years ago when a lot of builders were
going bust she was going to the meetings and at least showing
interest. I do know for a fact that Glen Elmes has been
very supportive of his electorate (particularly in regard to
de-amalgamtion) and I also know personally that he tried to help
the business I actually work for when we were bullied by a
Sunshine Coast Regional Councillor (thankfully ex-councillor
now), is a decent bloke.
I understand that when you belong to an organisation,
particularly a political party, that you have to show loyalty to
your party, though what about your electorate? I am
sure all the above MP’s are enjoying their current roles in State
Government and I know they want to be re-elected, so
obviously are not going to go rogue and be punished by their own
Political Party and it’s leader (we have seen already what happens in that
case...), so the loser is the electorate.
An MP is voted in by his or her electorate to represent the will
and wellbeing of people in their electorate.
Losing our Regional Police Headquarters without a whimper from
our MP’s is NOT representing their electorate. There will
be no REAL democracy in this country until the day comes when an
an MP can go against party policy without fear or favour in the
interest of best serving their particular electorate.
Not every electorate is the same, therefore not every MP can
possible agree with what “the party” dictates? In the real world
you belong to a group because you adhere to the majority of the
principals or ideals that group has, ‘majority’, it is not
feasible that every single person could possibly and slavishly
agree on every single point a group could have, it is just not
human nature? Disagreeing on one particular issue is not
disloyalty, it does not mean the MP does not believe in the ethos
of the political party they belong to, it just means that on the
odd occasion what is being put forward by the party is not
actually in the best interests of a particular electorate.
The Premier is just that, a Premier of a State, he is not God,
therefore his will should not over-ride that of the people who
voted you into your position in the first place. We (the
public) gave you that seat in Parliament, not Campbell Newman,
and you should be able to argue in our defence and Campbell
Newman (and the men in grey suits backing him) should respect
that you are doing ‘your job’, not being disloyal.
Worse, we the punters
have become indoctrinated in that fact and allow it. We sit
around at our BBQ’s whinge about the situation and ultimately
someone will come up with the sage comment of “Well
what can you expect, they can’t go against their
party”. You know what? They can &
they should!
I dream that one day enough MP’s will take back control of their
political parties (both LNP & ALP) and we will have true
democracy in this country. I dream of a day Penny Wong will
tell the ALP bosses to bugger off and that she does support Gay
marriage, (most Australians are ok with it), I would love Julia
Gillard to say no to the” Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination
Bill”, because it discriminates against her being
employed by a church group? AND I would really really like
Campbell Newman and the LNP powerbrokers to stop bullying OUR
MP’s on the Sunshine Coast and allow them to represent US by
saying NO to the closure of our Sunshine Coast Regional Police
Command Centre, it is NOT good for us!
Hell, what do I know? I am just a punter...
Noely @YaThinkN
