Qld Labor – The New Batch

It looks like some of the Class of ‘89, those ALP MPs who entered politics when the ALP finally defeated the Nationals, are going to step aside for the next election. MPs like Rod Welford, the Education Minister, will be sorely missed but there needs to be renewal in government to maintain strength and contact with the world outside. There are a number of promising young Labor politicians like Ronan Lee, Andrew McNamara, Grace Grace, Stirling Hinchliffe and Andrew Fraser who will form the next generation of Labor’s front bench and will shape the future of the state (much to the ‘Borg’s chagrin).

Ronan Lee, who wants to extend the CityCat network substantially, is probably the “Greenest” of the state MPs and, with Andrew McNamara, represents a new breed of ALP politician. This new breed aren’t as hell-bent on big road projects to solve traffic problems and we might be fortunate enough to see a government strongly pushing for increased public and active transport rather than building bypass tunnels. There’s been speculation that once Campbell Newman’s finished with the tunnel-boring machine, it can be deployed in the CBD to build underground rail stations at places like Eagle St, QUT and Woolloongabba.

It’s certainly going to be interesting to see what sort of people get preselected to fill the vacancies in outer suburban seats like Aspley, Enoggera, etc. who face traffic problems and don’t have as high access to rail as those in seats like Clayfield, Indooroopilly and South Brisbane. With petrol prices continuing to rise, will there be a call from the community to expand transport options so residents don’t have to rely on increasingly expensive private car transport or will there be calls from short-sighted, narrow-minded people to increase the state fuel subsidy and build more and bigger road projects?

Picked up by Larvatus Prodeo.