Those dark days are behind us, right?

Last Wednesday was December 2 and for Queenslanders it marked a significant turning point in our state’s history. On that day in 1823 explorer John Oxley sighted the mouth of the Brisbane River, and set in train a series of events that led ultimately to establishment of the Moreton Bay and eventually the state of Queensland. Of course December 2 also marked the election in 1972 of the doomed federal Labor Government under PM Gough Whitlam.
The date also marked the 1989 election of the doomed Labor Government in Queensland under Premier Wayne Goss. The Labor Party held a big dinner at the Brisbane Convention Centre to mark the occasion and your columnist was pleased to be invited along as a guest of a Labor pollie. W
hy I received the invitation is a mystery, but the pollie in question professed a deep admiration for my jottings over the years and emphasised the point by regularly placing a hand on my upper thigh and giving a gentle squeeze now and then. Still, I must hasten to add that your columnist maintained her journalistic independence and did not respond to the overt hints of physical desire.
Nevertheless, it was a pleasant evening and as the night wore on, it started me thinking about how much has changed in the past 20 years at the state government levels. Those of us around in the dark days of the Bjelke-Petersen regime and those of his successors up to December 1989 would remember that our state was run by governments that had, at best, a prickly relationship with trade unions. They were keen on privatising services, starting with prisons. They were seen to be unduly open to the influence of developers and others who made big donations to the ruling party. They tried to impose an unwanted dam on a sleepy south-east Queensland community. Ministers were going to jail for official wrongdoings. And they had plans to hive off formerly sacrosanct national park, notably on Lindeman Island, for private accommodation.
Thank goodness those dark days are far behind us.

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Like me, you would have seen state government adverts on TV urging motorists to slow down at roadworks and obey the signs telling us to obey lower speed limits, usually 40kph. A good idea, of course. But like me you no doubt also have come across the 40kph signs at places or at times when no roadworks are in progress.
In recent weeks, while piloting my trusty 1965 Land Rover around near-city suburbs, several such signs have told me to slow to 40kph. But in all cases there were no roadworks as such, the only activity being building work that ended at the fenceline. At one site, the 40kph sign was on show, but once through the roadworks there was no sign to tell drivers to resume normal speed.
If the government wants to instill in drivers’ minds the idea of routinely slowing down at roadworks, it needs to make sure the signs mandating a lower speed limit are not used and abused.

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Former federal Labor Party leader, former alternative prime minister, and well-known walking pile of unadulterated political bile, Mark Latham, has a regular column in the Australian Financial Review. In a recent column he urged the federal government to sell the ABC radio, television, and now internet network. His argument was based on a belief that the commercial network owners could fill the gap left by the disappearance of our national broadcaster, while the government could raise several billions of dollars to boost the budget’s bottom line.
If you are someone who believes the current offerings of networks Seven, Nine, and Ten outshine those of the ABC for quality and depth of coverage, then Mr latham may convince you to offload a national and international broadcasting institution. But from my point of view, it would be difficult to sell the idea that Today Tonight or A Current Affair could take the place of the 7.30 Report, Lateline, or Foreign Correspondent.
It is also relevant to note that of all the new free TV channels started in the past few months, it is the ABC’s third channel that actually has a lot of new content, including Australian-made programs. Channel 10’s One focuses on sport, while Channel Nine’s Go channel and Seven2 are take up by reruns, usually of US-made shows. How many more times can we watch I Dream of Jeannie?
It is difficult not to come to the conclusion that Mr Latham is grasping at straws in a bid to remain part of our public discourse. Thankfully not many people take notice of him any more.