QUEENSLAND Premier Peter Beattie will shortly announce his resignation from politics.

Mr Beattie, who has been Premier for nine years and is the longest-serving current Labor leader, had earlier this year announced he was considering retirement.

On Friday Mr Beattie told radio interview he would make a decision "soon" and he is expected to leave politics altogether.

Mr Beattie's deputy, Anna Bligh, will replace him, becoming Queensland's first woman premier.

Queensland Cabinet ministers had earlier talked down speculation that Mr Beattie would retire.

Mr Beattie's wife Heather said at the weekend she did not want her husband to contest the next state election, due in 2009.

Dr Beattie, who recently retired after a successful career as a nurse educator, said her husband was a “tired, exhausted, man with bags under his eyes”.

In July, Mr Beattie - who turns 55 in November - told the Queensland ALP conference he would spend the next 12 months considering his political future.

Education Minister Rod Welford said today he did not believe a decision was imminent.

“I think the Premier's got a while to go yet,” Mr Welford said.

Child Safety Minister Desley Boyle said she expected Mr Beattie to stay on for some time.

“He's been a great Premier - you know, not perfect, but great,” Ms Boyle said.

Queensland Liberal leader Bruce Flegg said Mr Beattie would be breaking an election promise if he did not stay for the full term.

From News Site

DONT DO IT PETEY

NO ONE COULD EVER REPLACE YOU!!!!

god you're a nimrod Flegg, i think it speaks volumes about qld liberals if he is chosen as their leader;

lolz, they'll never win;

yeh.. what election promise exactly would beattie be breaking by retiring? the promise to hardly even try & still easily kick the coalitions arse every election or suhn? hah.

Now who the f*** are we meant to vote for? I definately don't want Anna Bligh as premier...and the other two morons from the liberals/nationals are just as bad

sigh.

As much as I despise the labor party, I did like big Pete.

me too. Pete was someone who could connect with people. He was the pro at "sorry, forgive me" spiels.

WD GG.

Resigned to the fact that the State Liberals are hopeless, I just wish that the next Labor leader will actually do some forward planning over the next 10 years, unlike Beattie who started all his planning after 8 years in government.

i guess he finally discovered his rain dance doesnt work very well.

FOAD Beattie!

Seriously, should of pissed off years ago the lamer.

He was the pro at "sorry, forgive me" spiels.

Thats all he did for 9 f***ing years.
I dont know how people still like him.

I will concede that he's the lesser of 2(3) evils though.

I think he'll go down as one of the best premiers...

Someone put it best in the courier mail (urgh) "The Silent Majority believe he has been a great premier of QLD"

The Libs should promote Can-do Campbell to the State party, then they may have a chance.

I liked Pete too - had a couple of f*** ups, but which politician doesn't from time to time.

queensland is in a pretty f***ed condition.
but all we could do was continually vote in a bumbling clusterf*** because the opposition could only put forward absolute s***wanks who had even less of a clue.

qld politics is f***ing joke.

News.com.au link (with video)

i'd vote for Campbell Newman as premier. but Bruce Flegg is worse than KRudd.

http://bruceflegg.com/

Hospital Staff pwns in Beattie IR Campaign

i'd vote for Campbell Newman as premier. but Bruce Flegg is worse than KRudd.

Flegg reminds me so much of rudd, though, I think hes probably worse...

isn't seeney the leader of the qld coalition? qld liberals are just the national party lackeys. :D

queensland is in a pretty f***ed condition.
but all we could do was continually vote in a bumbling clusterf*** because the opposition could only put forward absolute s***wanks who had even less of a clue.

qld politics is f***ing joke.

Yeah with the best budget surplus and highest net worth of any state added to this with moodies triple AAA rating, low unemployment, he must be doing a terrible job.

Qld Lib/Nats supporters when will they ever learn.

If we'd had the Nats/Libs in the last 10 years we'd have less of everything, a financial mess and probalby the only thing more would be more irrigators licenses for the Murray/Darling. Talk about head in sand.

last edited by Some Fat Bastard at 17:05:32 10/Sep/07

Yeah with the best budget surplus and highest net worth of any state

you sure about that? WA is sitting on a 1 billion dollar surplus even after investing 5.8 billion in capital works.

Queensland Coalition is pretty poor and it's not likely to improve any time soon. Queensland political history has been radical to say the least, after all we did have the world first labour government (they didn't drop the "u" until 1912).

The state conservative don't have the comfort of using a strong economic/defence/immigration/commerce policies to be elected as those powers are vested solely in the commonwealth. So that really only leaves the state branches with law and order, health and services, and infrastructure development (though it could be argued the latter two are reliant on funding from the commonwealth). I would say that if they coalition COULD establish are stable front bench with a liberal leader (which won't likely happen due to the national dominance. face it, city people don't vote for country bumpkins) they could run a strong infrastructure development campaign.

uh haven't you f***ed off yet SFB? seriously.

you sit here blasting infi for being a lib ideologue when you're just the same. labor could legalise toddler-rape tomorrow and you'd probably find some way to defend it... have you ever posted in a thread without acting like a pompous f***wit who thinks he knows more than everyone?

anyway, beattie wasn't a great premier but he sure knew how to work the system. the media practically ate out of his hand. and i think he probably did better than the qld coalition would have.

he should have f***ed off before he started the f***ing amalgamation crap and messing with noosa council.

unless you're a shire councillor who gives a rats about amalgamations

sunshine coast regional council is such a great idea it gives me wood

you sure about that? WA is sitting on a 1 billion dollar surplus even after investing 5.8 billion in capital works.

Mining boom much?

uh haven't you f***ed off yet SFB? seriously.

Awwww! Mummy take your dummy.

you sit here blasting infi for being a lib ideologue when you're just the same.

Yep! But infi is wrong most of he time. There lies the difference.

labor could legalise toddler-rape tomorrow and you'd probably find some way to defend it...

I defend the facts not fantasy. How about you do the same.

have you ever posted in a thread without acting like a pompous f***wit who thinks he knows more than everyone?

Not hard to with you as competition. BTW seems like envy to me.

anyway, beattie wasn't a great premier but he sure knew how to work the system.

Better than what we've had in over 30 years.

the media practically ate out of his hand.

I wonder why? Couldn't be because of the ineptness of the past, could it?

and I think he probably did better than the qld coalition would have.

Probably nothing, absoutely more like it.

you sure about that? WA is sitting on a 1 billion dollar surplus even after investing 5.8 billion in capital works.

Ara, some info for you. Here's an excerpt on the Financial Position of QLD taken from Treasury.

Investment in Queensland's capital works program will also increase and is set to top $14 billion for the first time, making it the country's biggest capital works program per capita.

Also on the budget surplus to the end of the last financial year prior to this years budget (that's what we calculate) was $2.393 billion.

Thus the net worth of each Queenslander in comparison to the other states is a positive $5,000 compared to an average negative $517 per capita for the other states. In fact this means we are per capita the most wealthy of any other state.

Also since 1997-1998, unemployment has gone from 8.7% to 4%.

last edited by Some Fat Bastard at 18:47:02 10/Sep/07

No point getting into ideological arguments here. SFB won't be converted, neither will the liberal supporters.

Beattie, like Howard, has led their parliaments during a time of unrivalled prosperity, so comparing them to their predecessors is comparing apples and oranges.


Out of interest, SFB, what are the origins of your left beliefs? and exactly how left are you? i'm presuming you're not a supporter of communism or radically socialism (IWW and the like)?


edit: Prosperity of the mining boom, which has occurred relatively independent of their respective economic/industrial policies and spending policies.

last edited by fade at 18:55:40 10/Sep/07

hahahah wow

i'm not even going to bother trying to argue with you because even if i'm right i couldn't win.

in the other thread about politics i showed how you didn't really understand what you were talking about when you were trying to discuss the economics of the current account deficit. but hey don't let a pesky little thing like that stop you, huh.

so you just go ahead and tell everyone why they're wrong, what would the internets do without you!?

huh?
Whose Beattie?

your mum

huh?
Whose Beattie?

that's just because you belong to the group of Gen Y f***wads who think its cool to be ignorant of politics, news and world events.

i feel nervous for the future. Ignorant voters are the representative democracy's worst nightmare.

in the other thread about politics i showed how you didn't really understand what you were talking about when you were trying to discuss the economics of the current account deficit. but hey don't let a pesky little thing like that stop you, huh.

so you just go ahead and tell everyone why they're wrong, what would the internets do without you!?

To be honest taggs, I've never argued with you over current account deficits. I've never brought up current account deficits to my memory.

The reason they and you are wrong with this is I've been contracted to the State Government on Financial Management Systems for over 12 years in the past. I know exactly the financial positons of the State Government during Joh, Ahern, Goss, Borbidge and now Beattie eras.

I developed the first Deprtmental Accounting System in 1986, impemented the first Whole of Government Accounting System for th State Government in 1993, developed the Budgetting systems for two Deprtments in 1997, developed the Financial Reporting Systems for over 9 Departments in 1998 to 2000. I was even recently contracted to the Government on thse very same systems in 2005. I've seen the figures time and time again from all these different eras and I know whose the better.

To develop these systems one must have a comprehensive understanding of the Financial Requirements and associated Legislation of the State Government. Something I pride myself in knowing.

By the way I also produced the Financial Statements for several Departments of the State Governments on many occasions. Who do you think collates all this information from so many disparate systems. The Information Division of the Financial Management and Adminsitration Divisions of these Departments. Of which at times I have been the manager of.

So go right on ahead and consider your information and knoweldge of these matters far outwiegh mine. However I have a large dose of reality and experience, what's your qualifications?

last edited by Some Fat Bastard at 19:38:18 10/Sep/07

some fat bastard is like your dad. He's old, fat, actually has heaps of life experience and has seen it all and actually knows lots about lots, but for some strange reason, our society tells us not to listen to old c***s.

that is impressive, were you ever working directly in the treasurer's office? a family member of mine was under-treasurer before beattie got in.

matey, i never argued anything you said in this thread. what gets me is the way you go about it, name calling and acting superior to people for pretty much no reason. not so bad in this thread but in others you have acted like a downright prick.

also, you might know this but most people dont - the borbidge government had 2 dams planned for SE QLD and beattie shelved them. this water crisis would have been a whole lot better if that hadn't have happened. oh and i support labor in state politics (so far)

for the current account thing read the last thread it was titled something about a rate rise, towards the end of the thread. it's in there.

^ no probs taggs, no hard feelings. I do get hot under the collar at times and I do apologise for that. I guess I have less patience than when I was younger. As some say I can be a grumpy old prick.

In my career I predominately worked for the individual departments. Then when the corporate service functions of many departments were amalgamated into the Corporate Services Agency I then worked for them. This then became Corptech which was subsequently absorbed by Treasury.

I was and have been in the past a participant of the Shared Services Intiative of the Beattie Government for quite a period of time. This is where all major Administrative and Financial Management functions of departments are performed and delivered by one agency, rather than each department having there own divivion doing it. It is designed to reduce replication, increase effeciency and reduce cost. Admittedly I haven't seen the reduction in cost all that much.

BTW I am not a complete fan of Beattie. When I have been in contract to the Government we often referred to the Premiers Office as the dead letter office. Where correspondence ends up but never goes anywhere or is acted upon. He's not perfect or was perfect by a long shot, but with my experience with previous Governments we have come a long way. I can tell you.

Under Joh, seniority, not performance was how you got ahead in the Public Service. Goss introduced Corporatisation and restructured the Government Departments. Introduced performance for advancement and made each Department Outcome and Performance based. I saw a lot of cronyism and underperformance under Joh. But I saw a lot of politicisation under Goss and subsequently Beattie. I guess no one is perfect of either political persuasion.

The one thing I do like about our Labor State Governments is the propensity to spend money on high calibre professionals and thus luring them from the private sector. Once upon a time a private enterprise professional would never have bothered entering the public service. Many do now. The downside however is the cut-throat nature of some and the win by all means approach. The result is quite a significant turnover of staff with morale at times excessively low. To be honest the main problem with Health is not Beattie, but the public servants who manage Health. It would have to be the worst department to work for, for managerial thuggery.

Now, to another poster's question. Why am I left in politics? To be honest I'd consider myself more centre than left. I consider the Feds extreme right with Labor more centrist. I was a child raised below the poverty line with a lone mother and five children whose father ran out when I was 5 years old. I'm the second youngest. Through a public education I was able to rise above the caste. I topped primary school, high school and was in the top 5% at QIT for BAS Applied Chemistry. Yet I never followed through with my Industrial Chemistry career. I secured a job working in IT straight after Uni and loved it and never did anything else.

Throughout this time, I met my wife when contracted to the State Government. She was a clerk who came from a working class Catholic background. Private educated but lower middle class Labor roots. We had a common social and political outlook. She rose to become an advisor under Ed Casey, the Minister for Primary Industries under the Goss Government. We married, had kids and she left the public service after 13 years service. She has never gone back. I am no longer active in IT roles moreso now business management but in all this time I have never forgotten where I came from, who especially needs the philosophy of social assistance and opportunity and the need to provide a high quality public education system, health system and welfare system.

For all those left at the bottom there are many who struggle and strive to rise above it but fail to do so and not always of their own making. What I don't like about the Feds is they blame the victim all too often, penalise and punish them with little in actual constructive help. A good indicator is the state of Australias budgets both state and federally yet we have so much to fix. I blame both persuasions but I've noticed over the last numer of years Howard and his team have become stagnant with new ideas for moving the nation ahead.

Workchoices is not the answer, flexible workplaces are part of the answer, but we have already had these under Keating and Howard before WorkChoices. High valued manufactureing, industry and services with a good mix of a highly educated population is the answer. All I have seen is higher education become more expensive and more targeted towards full fee paying and industry left in the doldrums where most assistance is given to old industries like car production rather than new industries like electronic fabrication and energy production.

Even our steel industry was once a thriving industry now it is but a shell of what it was. We import it more and more as a refined product from overseas then actually make it ourselves. We tend to sell more raw material than refined goods.

Countries like Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Korea whom are short on raw material generate greater wealth from refined goods. I can't understand why we haven't invested in such industries with the large surpluses we have been experiencing. Paying off debt is one wthing but to ignore investment in future potential is gross negligence. I feel there has been too much wasted opportunity under Howard.

I'm not saying he has been bad at managing an economy, I'm saying he has been shortsighted and negligent of the future of Australia in respect to our skills, industry and infrastructure. I feel a younger team with a younger leader ready for the challeneges of the 21st century more appropriate for these times then someone educated in the 1950's with still the politcal attitude of the 1970/80's. We are long gone from there and the political and industrial climate have well and truly moved on. This is why I consider union scaremongering not based on reality of the realworld. The unions no longer dominate the workplace or society and I think that's good. We should now move on with our thinking and leave the past in the past and look at both sides in what they offer, not what they did. In this I feel Labor are more attuned to these challenges.

Well that's about it with my philosophy of the current situation. Whether you agree with my view or not is really immaterial. What is important is that you look beyond your political compass and decide where does our future lay and with whom is showing the potential to get us there and become aware of the issues and not rely upon a brochure or fridge magnet with carefully crafted marketing driven speil from either parties. I at least try and do this most of the time. Alas I am older therefore have more baggage and a bit of a dinosaur. You blokes have way less of either and should be free of the past hence should really look at what's on offer now than what was on offer before you were even old enough to vote. Things like rampant unionism and fervent socialism doesn't exist anymore.

That's my 2c.

PS don't have the energy to fix the typos. So bear with them. Also yes I can be extremely pompous but if you really knew me you'd know I'm also really generous too.

last edited by Some Fat Bastard at 21:10:03 10/Sep/07

know your flegg, win a keg

don't have the energy to fix the typos. So bear with them.

tl;dr.


Doesn't really matter to me anyway.. can't vote till the next election.

don't worry one day the proles will rise up and overthrow the bourgeois pigs. That's if they can ever get off their arses watching foxtel on their LCDs and inside their SUVs.

As long as I'm the one who gets to operate the guillotine I'm all for it.

I've cancelled foxtel, but not ready to let go of the lcd or suv yet. I could if I wanted to though

see you're not ready to rise up. you're too rich off capitalism. get hungry and feel the oppression of your brothers. Comrade.

The one thing I do like about our Labor State Governments is the propensity to spend money on high calibre professionals and thus luring them from the private sector. Once upon a time a private enterprise professional would never have bothered entering the public service. Many do now.

yeah, that's true. that family member i was talking about went from academia to under-treasurer and now is ceo of a government owned funds management corporation. while the private sector equivalent of his position would still pay rediculously more it's good that the public sector has realised that they can't pay peanuts and expect quality people.

High valued manufactureing, industry and services with a good mix of a highly educated population is the answer...

Even our steel industry was once a thriving industry now it is but a shell of what it was. We import it more and more as a refined product from overseas then actually make it ourselves. We tend to sell more raw material than refined goods.

Countries like Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Korea whom are short on raw material generate greater wealth from refined goods. I can't understand why we haven't invested in such industries with the large surpluses we have been experiencing.

australia is a resource rich country, and we will never get ahead by mimic-ing resource poor countries. the reason for this is the concept of comparative advantage which is the concept underlying trade, globalisaion and basically most if not all of economic activity.

you've probably heard/know it but this is a good explanation just in case. (btw don't ever use wikipedia for anything economics related, it's utter trash)

but resource rich doesn't mean that we can't have world class technological progress, but we can't expect to do it in industries we don't have a comparative advantage in (electronics, computers, etc). instead we can encourage innovation in areas that build off our natural strengths. bio-medical science and vet science compliment agriculture. mineral extraction technology and bulk logistics build on our mining industry. environmental management for our tourism industry.

a paper by CEDA (committee for economic development of australia) goes into more detail, a few other paper with similar findings have come out in the last few years.

in regards to the cost of uni rising, university education has been underpriced for a very long time. while the cost of uni education is rising so is the return on it. i'm all for letting the market determine the price of university education but there should be a student loans facility (interest rate = inflation or something similar to HECS) availavble to everyone who wants it. that way the education market would operate efficiently but it would still be available to all.

edit: i cant speel

last edited by taggs at 16:46:25 11/Sep/07

Some very enlightening linked texts there taggs. A good read. Certainly gives me some new perspectives to certain issues.

Ta.

that's just because you belong to the group of Gen Y

Gen Y?
I don't think so
I was spawned before Armstrong walked on the moon

refering to clint