Queensland heads to the Polls.

Cartoon from Kudelka Cartoons.

At last the states worst kept secret has finally been revealed with the announcement today that an election is to be held on March 21. It was widely predicted that the Premier, Anna Bligh would call an election on the 28th out of desperation when the state budget flew into disarray with the news that we face a $1.5 billion deficit. The Mar 21st date indicates panic although she is using the old excuse that an election is necessary to quell all that speculation out there.

The reason for the speculation for a later date was that the government was to pass legislation next week for a “Charter of Budget Honesty,” a play on words which would ensure that election promises would be examined by Treasury officials rather than a private firm independent from government. This would mean that opposition promises would be examined and assessed by public servants, who are of course government employees. Nobody believed she would be desperate enough to rush in and call an election without having the advantage of the use of treasury as a propaganda machine.

While claiming that in order to handle the economic crisis she needs a mandate for another three years the reality is that she has another six months to run of her current term, which would give Queenslanders the opportunity to make a sound assessment of her capabilities. The news that for the first time the states credit rating has dropped from AAA to AA, has given her a realisation that the very last thing her government wants, is for the public to have a chance to make such an assessment.

The mail-out of the federal governments stimulus checks during the election campaign is probably another reason to rush in.

Bligh is running a government of fiscal incompetents, who while urging the opposition not to make any promises of big spending during the election in these troubled times, have announced the intention of borrowing ten billion for infrastructure spending. At a time when the public at large is trying desperately to reign in personal costs in order to pull through, the government has the crazed belief it can spend its way out of debt.