Local Government Elections, some great results.

Photo Tom Gilmore, Mayor Tablelands Shire.

By Jim Fryar.

Here in Queensland we have just completed our local authority elections after the amalgamation of quite a few shires, which was instituted by the state Labor government in the name of efficiency. However as local authorities tend to be the major training ground for future conservative MPs there is some suspicion that there may have been ulterior motives.

Labor has attacked this ‘problem’ in the past by requiring that any councillor or alderman standing for parliament resign from that position, and now they will have to try harder, as they got a flogging in the councils where politics plays a part.

Most councils in this state are non-political, and the candidates use no party affiliation. Brisbane and Townsville are however notable exceptions, both having been dominated by Labor in recent times, although Brisbane had a Liberal (conservative for those who do not know our wording here) mayor for the whole of the last term, but with a Labor council.

He now has a Liberal council with a substantial majority to work with, and in Townsville the news is even better, Tony Mooney, the long-standing Labor mayor has been soundly thrashed by an independent, and none of the Labor team was elected.

Tom Gilmore a guy I went to school with, and a former National Party minister has been elected as mayor of Tablelands up in North Qld. Tom unfortunately lost his parliamentary seat when the One Nation Party briefly fared well, before people realized what it was about and it imploded.

It would appear that there is a resurgence in conservative politics in the state and hopefully the Labor Party is on the way out. The former premier Peter Beattie was good with the media but when he quit he followed the old political adage “Always get yourself succeeded by someone less competent than yourself, so you look better,” and so he anointed Anna Blyth.

Tom assures me that by the end of the year Labor will be out in two states, which sounds like a reasonable prediction as they are starting to look pretty bad. The Rudd federal government is starting to reveal what it was really on about and that wont help the Labor state governments at all.

I feel quite sure that if the National Party and Liberal Party can sort things out between themselves and get their act together they will give Labor a pizzeling next year.

Locally our council was amalgamated with the shire next door as well as the southern division of the one to the north of us. The result went reasonably with a reasonable spread of councillors across the whole area, although the northern division missed out. Hopefully at the next election this can be rectified, and in the meantime I am pretty sure some of those elected will ensure they get a fair go.

A prominent local extremist, formed a team to contest the election with him as mayor, however failed dismally and none of his team were elected. I have sympathy for his views against gun control, however being a dominant personality he tends to be surrounded by acolytes rather than friends or supporters.

However his views on other subjects are extreme as the following examples show: -

On prostitution,
Prostitution was wiped out, eliminated, in China in the nineteen fifties, sixties and seventies. It has only recurred in the nineties, when the country's moral character has come under attack from the decadent West. …………….

The parliament of today may not have the moral backbone to execute the Pimps, Brothel Keepers, Police bribe taker's and corrupt politicians as Mao did. ………..

On Homosexuality,
………….. a lifestyle that is opposed to families, he promotes a lifestyle which kills families, many more family members than the motorcar or tobacco or alcohol combined, he advocates and promotes Homosexuality. They cannot reproduce more homosexuals they have to prey and convert people to their deadly lifestyle. If any of them miss out on Aids and do not die of infections caused by their foul promiscuous activities they are a freak if they reach the age of fifty-five. The tragedies, family break ups, suicides, drug overdoses, whittle them away constantly, they need replacements to whose family do they look next?

This guy really needs to lighten up a bit. Although I disagree with prostitution and am straight I find this sort of stuff just plain sick.

I personally have a strong commitment to ‘conventional’ morality, however a lack of such commitment by others is none of my business. Those who feel strongly about such things have the right to talk to people and try to get them to see the ‘right way,’ if those people wish to listen.

To live according to a perception of personal morality and to advocate doing so is proper, to try to force others to live by those values, or launch venomous diatribes against those who follow a different path is wrong. Virtue is only virtue when it is a chosen path. To advocate virtue is noble, to advocate legal prohibition is sanctimonious.