Qld: Ticking time bomb awaits Beattie

AAP General News (Australia)
02-01-2007
Qld: Ticking time bomb awaits Beattie

By Paul Osborne

BRISBANE, Feb 1 AAP - As Queensland Premier Peter Beattie walks into the parliamentary
chamber next Tuesday for the first sitting of the year he may notice a ticking noise.

But it's not al-Qaeda the Queensland Premier should be worried about - it's a conga-line
of former Labor colleagues, police, Aborigines, the coalition and parched south-east Queenslanders.

The Beattie government faces a potentially explosive parliamentary year.

Firstly, there is the case of former health minister Gordon Nuttall, who faces 35 corruption
charges relating to a $300,000 private loan from mining magnate Ken Talbot.

Information about the loan, which Nuttall did not declare on the official public register
for MPs, surfaced during a Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) investigation into a
Sunshine Coast hospital development.

Talbot will have his first day in court on Monday, also charged with 35 counts of corruption.

Another former minister, Merri Rose, will appear in court on Tuesday, charged with
trying to extort a high-paying public service job out of the premier.

Both ministers have been thorns in Mr Beattie's side for some time.

Nuttall most notably made a mess of the scandal over rogue surgeon Dr Jayant Patel,
and Rose - formerly known as the "minister for fun" - made an embarrassing series of errors,
including letting her son use a taxpayer-funded car.

Adding to the strain on Mr Beattie, delays are plaguing the timetable for delivering
new water infrastructure as the state's south-east faces the worst drought on record.

It has been revealed that the state's water grid - a multi-billion dollar network of
pipes, dams, weirs, recycling and desalination plants - is on an almost impossibly tight
production schedule.

The government has called off a planned March plebiscite, in which voters were to have
a say on drinking purified waste water, after Mr Beattie admitted that water recycling
was a "life or death" decision.

Some developers are now questioning whether recycled water could lead to potential
new Queenslanders being turned off by the "yuck" factor, as southern premiers also "pooh-pooh"

the idea.

With level five water restrictions looming large, south-east Queenslanders are angry
over the lack of planning for a region growing at more than 1,000 people a week.

Mr Beattie also faces pressure on another front, with relations between the indigenous
community and police at an all-time low.

Police are holding protest meetings across the state and plan an unprecedented march
on parliament over the government's handling of an Aboriginal death in custody and lack
of action over police resourcing.

Police Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley is soon to face charges over the death of Mulrunji
Doomadgee at the Palm Island watchhouse in 2004, despite initially being let off the hook
by the Director of Public Prosecutions last year.

Mr Beattie has attempted to take the heat out of the issue by calling on Queenslanders
to let justice take its course, as well as referring the issue of policing in indigenous
areas to the CMC for review.

But police and indigenous leaders have doubts about yet another inquiry.

On another front, the Queensland coalition is sounding more confident after revamping
the way Nationals and Liberal MPs cooperate in parliament.

The new deal means the Coalition leader will be decided at a joint party room meeting,
rather than by the party with the most members elected.

The two parties have also agreed to run in an equal number of seats, and an equal number
of winnable seats.

Liberal leader Bruce Flegg has put his personal stamp on the deal by promising not
to challenge Nationals leader Jeff Seeney if the coalition wins government, even if the
Liberals win more seats at the next election.

That deal, of course, may fall over if Dr Flegg himself is tossed out of the leadership
by Liberal MPs before the next poll, but it gives the coalition some extra stability going
into the new parliamentary session.

Within Labor there are mutterings about Mr Beattie's future and the ability of his
anointed successor Anna Bligh to take over the reins.

Ms Bligh effectively handled the job while Mr Beattie was on three weeks' leave, but
her membership of the Left faction raises eyebrows amongst MPs from the Centre and Right.

The premier has also been talking up his intention to stay on for the next election.

The ticking is only likely to get louder as parliament resumes.

AAP pjo/jl/sp

KEYWORD: NEWSCOPE QLD (AAP NEWSFEATURE)

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