I will most likely be voting ALP at this next election. Ok, I know that is an odd thing for me, I am a fan of Independents & minor parties, I personally feel that they are more accountable to the electorate, their only priority is the the electorate, not their party bosses as happens in the larger political parties. Noosa saw that very clearly when Cate Molloy was sacked by Qld ALP for representing the overwhelming majority of her electorate who did not want the Traveston Dam. Obviously this went against ALP policy, so Cate was sacked. For us in Noosa, that was offensive, surely representing US, the voters, should have been the right & correct thing to do, surely we should have been more important than the ‘party’. In fact, I have not voted for the ALP since my very first State Election I could legally vote in, and that was to end the reign of Bjelke-Petersen who had been in charge of Qld my whole life. What happened to Cate Molloy just reinforced my poor opinion of how much political parties actually care about the people in their electorate and what the priority is, not the punter :(
The thing is, I live in Wide Bay, one of the safest Federal seats in the country. Looking at all the attention that Western Sydney is getting from both parties should be a lesson to the people of Wide Bay, we should not be bitching jealously about it, we should be studying it and learning from it!
Now, I don’t know Mr Warren Truss at all, the only communication
I have had with him is at the Meet the Candidate nights in
previous elections and I have to say, he did not inspire
me. His attitude about the NBN alone was pretty insulting,
as a regional area, he should have been fighting for us to have
better infrastructure so we can compete with the cities, Hell, as
a National, to borrow a phrase from Mr Abbott, fighting for Rural
& Regional communities should be in the “National’s DNA”, in
fact, as the Leader of the Nationals, Mr Truss should not be
advocating a sub-standard Internet for our region. If Joh
could see this, he would be rolling in his grave.
Joh was an ornery bugger, he would have fought the ALP tooth
& nail on the NBN, taken every opportunity to trash them,
because basically, that is just the way he rolled, BUT, in the
background, he would have been doing deals to make sure that we
in Queensland got the benefits of the NBN first. He might
have come across as a doddery old bloke, but he was a cunning
man, who – as history shows – always took his ‘cut’ on any
monetary transaction in this state, at the same time, he did
actually try to improve the state & put Qld first.
Back to why we have to vote ALP... After asking ALP people
on twitter, they don’t bother spending anything in Wide Bay as it
is a SAFE SEAT for the coalition. Mr Truss who has been the
MP for Wide Bay actually improved at the 2010 Federal Election
with a margin of +10.25. So basically, no other party is
going to fight for the seat, they don’t have unlimited funds, so
are not going to waste those funds on a seat they can’t
win. But where does that leave the people of Wide
Bay?
Mr Truss was in power with the Coalition for 12 years, nothing
happened in Wide Bay, even in those glory days of the last term
of the Howard Government when they were tossing out cash left
right & centre, Wide Bay missed out. Since the ALP have
been in again, nothing in Wide Bay, times are tough, cash is
tight, why would you bother spending any money here when you have
no chance to get an MP voted in?
This is the dilemma of Wide Bay that the punters living here just
do not see. We stay a safe seat, we keep getting the same
treatment, nothing. Basically, the only time anyone notices
the area is when Gympie floods & the Bruce Highway is cut
off. An article in the Gympie Times “A $1 billion pledge for Sydney roads but
Bruce Hwy left out” perfecly illustrates what is happening in
this seat. The LNP Qld Transport Minister is quite proud of
trashing the Federal Govt for ignoring the Bruce, but that is
seriously hypocritical, as the Coalition have never done anything
about it either. In fact, the area being conservative with
safe wall to wall LNP at a state level just worsens the situation
for us.
As a small business operating in the Noosa area, I desperately
need the NBN. Friends who live in the rural area of this
electorate need someone to seriously look at the duopoly of Coles
& Woolworths and how they are screwing over Primary
Producers. We also need someone to stop allowing the cheap
asian imports of vegetables that are hurting those primary
producers even more. We desperately need the Bruce sorted
out, it is getting ridiculous, both with deaths on that highway
& the amount of times it is closed during flooding.
With the high Aussie Dollar, tourism needs some serious help in
this area, in fact, in the Noosa area alone the unemployment
(particularly youth unemployment) is very high and with TAFE’s
being closed and courses being cut back in the ones that have not
been sold for their real estate potential, this is only going to
get worse. CSG & Mining worries, crap transport,
limited opportunities, flood mitigation, the list of concerns
& needs in the Wide Bay electorate just goes on &
on...
No-one cares, no-one is listening. We are not even on the
radar. To get some notice for the issues we have, the only
choice is to shatter the ‘safe-seat’ situation.
We either vote ALP and they sneak in, which means even if the Coalition win Federal Govt as is most likely at the moment, they will spend money & listen to us here, as they want their seat back.
On the flipside, if we vote ALP and something ‘Howard like’ happens, a children overboard or a 9/11 and the ALP gets back in, then we will still win, as they will want to keep this seat.
This scenario is a win win for Wide Bay regardless of who
wins Federal Government.
IF Katter, Greens & some Independents decide to run in Wide
Bay, well, that would be even better, though we can only
capitalise on voting for these people if that vote is being taken
away from the Coalition, not Labor. So basically this is
your choice people of Wide Bay, we keep seeing articles like that
in the Gympie Times for the next decade, as we have for the past
2 decades, or we actually stand, fight back and try to make a
change.
I am saddened to have to write this. I truly believe in
Democracy and wish that it didn't matter where you were in this
country that your elected representative would actually represent
you and you would have a voice in Government. Sadly party
politics does not allow for that, therefore, it is time for we,
the punters, to participate in the 'party politics' game to get
some action. As I said, for all I know Mr Truss may be a
lovely man, unfortunately my electorate is sliding backwards and
has been neglected for too long, therefore, Mr Truss, the
Nationals who have abandoned us and their core values, and the
coalition who doesn’t even notice we exist, have to go!
I am just a punter, but I am a punter who is sick of her backyard
being taken for granted!
cheers
Noely @YaThinkN
