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Modernising Queensland - Email sent 31/8/09
Stefanie Balogh
Courier Mail
RE:
'Overstated?', Courier Mail, 29-30/8/09
I should like to
endorse your suggestion that Queensland's apparent shift over the last two
decades from a conservative backwater towards political, social and economic
sophistication is merely skin deep, and to suggest that that is largely a
consequence of amateurish, mainly-politically-motivated attempts to achieve
change.
My interpretation of your article:
Queenslanders may be kidding themselves about how vibrant and cutting-edge
this state has become. Queensland has tried for two decades to shake off
its image as a sleepy country town and cultural wasteland. Brisbane was
seen to lack the cosmopolitan polish of Sydney and multiculturalism of
Melbourne. There has been a perception of progress - but also evidence of
problems. The premier has sought again to revitalize the tourist industry
- but the state did not gain recognition for a single top-rating
restaurant. While many ordinary people from southern states are attracted
by Queensland's weather and lifestyle, the captains of industry and
politics still remain in the south. Queensland claims Australia's first
elected female premier and Australian governor-general, but few senior
federal politicians are from this state. Queensland has world renowned
scientists, and a major Gallery of Modern Art, but the veneer of cultural
renaissance may be only skin deep. A fashion spectacular did not attract
some big designers. Tourism is struggling - after success in 1980s it is
seen to have failed to move with the times. Queensland's financial
position has deteriorated badly - with a need for heavy borrowings.
Queensland is still seeking to make itself into a modern vibrant state,
but there is still further to go.
On the basis of several decades of studying, and
attempting to accelerate, Queensland's modernisation I should like to suggest
for your consideration that:
-
the lack of competent institutions within the
community itself to support modernising reformers has been a major
constraint, because it has permitted
populist initiatives
(ie those that sound good to the ill-informed, but can't achieve much in
practice) to be seen as the best available (see
More Competent External Support to Parliament).
It has been my experience over decades that:
-
emerging ideas / trends tend only to gain
acceptance in Queensland some 15-20 years after they have been implemented
in world-leading regions (sometimes even after they have been found to be
dysfunctional elsewhere);
-
institutions to provide community leaders with
practical and up-to-date advice tend not to exist, and there is apathy
within the community in response to any suggestions that would require
anyone doing any work to overcome such gaps (arguably because the state's
rich land / mineral resources
have permitted a high level of material
prosperity with limited intellectual effort). Queensland's current crisis
in public finance has been
developing for many years,
yet (a) no competent institutions considered that they had any
responsibility to undertake an independent assessment; and (b) even after
a crisis has now become apparent no one seems to believe that they need to
get off their backsides to look more closely at the
apparently-dubious goings-on;
-
efforts to 'modernise' Queensland over the past
two decades have been largely a pretence - to gain political applause from
the media and benefited interest groups. While the anti-intellectual
populism ("Don't you worry about that") of the Bjelke-Peterson era
disappeared, the
'intellectual populism'
of the Goss Government arguably was
even less constructive,
while the subsequent
Smart State rhetoric
was simply a joke (because the costly efforts to
boost human resource and research inputs to a 'smart' economy were not
accompanied by any serious efforts to address the main constraint - ie the
lack of competency and organisation within Queensland business to make
productive use of such inputs). Efforts to reform Queensland's institutions
gained little traction, arguably arguably
because they
did not consider the need to develop competent
institutions to support the state's political system;
-
academic confusion about the nature and status
of practical knowledge and creativity seems to have limited the contribution
by universities in disciplines linked with the humanities (eg see
A Crisis in Education at QUT?,
The Value of Creativity and Culture,
and 'Creative
Culture' in Brisbane);
-
the requirements for more substantial progress
(eg leadership within the community that is not primarily politically
focussed) have been obvious for a long time, yet the required initiative has
tended to be suppressed by a political tradition of seeking to control
change and dispense patronage. On
three occasions under
different governments, the present writer has observed the rejection of
proposals that would have strengthened the economic capabilities of the
Queensland community itself, apparently because this would have reduced the
ability of the political system to dispense patronage;
-
suggestions for overcoming these constraints
that were put forward in 2007 are probably still relevant (see
Queensland's Next Successful
Premier).
John Craig
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