Influential interest groups have wanted political stability in Queensland, because the difficulties facing the community require major changes and real performance ⁽¹⁾.

However the recent state election outcome does not ensure this. The election resolved a political question, but the deeper practical causes of instability remain. For example:

• the community faces severe social stresses - eg high levels of unemployment, poverty, violence, dubious ethics, sexual assault, crime, fear and drug use ⁽²⁾;
• the social stresses, especially in marginal rural, coastal and metropolitan regions that have led to political instability, arose in the 1990s largely from very poor, un-supportive management of pressures for economic change (Section 1 of Detailed Paper);
• the economic causes of those stresses have still not been being eliminated as recent attempts to diversify the economy (eg under 'Smart State') could achieve little but amuse the political 'establishment' and consume public money (Section 2);
• even greater economic changes will now be vital, due to the challenges that resource-based industries face from environmental constraints and from global restructuring / competitors (Section 3). Social and political dislocation must escalate unless economic change is much faster and smoother in future. New economic paradigms used in key Asian trading partners further complicate the situation.
• government administration itself requires fundamental overhaul because:
  • Parliament has often behaved with juvenile abandon, because there has been little 'raw material' on policies to really solve Queensland's problems (Section 4);
  • the 'rorting' culture identified in the ALP's AWU faction in relation to filling key political positions has also damaged the Public Service (Section 5);
  • for this reason, and others, the Public Service has lacked professional credibility and administration has been degenerating into a shambles. Little of substance can be achieved until the Public Service is renewed on a professional basis to provide a practical complement to politics (Section 6); and
  • serious financial difficulties have been emerging. Queensland has not been ‘burning cash’ as fast as some ‘dot.coms’, but it has been ‘burning cash’. Both the state budget and the ‘commercial’ model for government business enterprises seem to be becoming financially unsustainable (Section 7);
• the policies of major political groups have not addressed the difficult challenges (Section 8).

Thus the underlying causes of political instability could easily get much worse. One key to overcoming this risk is realization that transient political popularity is not enough to ensure that a government is technically competent to achieve real results.

Evidence about the above is available in a detailed paper.

John Craig

Centre for Policy and Development Systems

25 February 2001