Qld: A Can Do of political worms

AAP General News (Australia)
04-08-2004
Qld: A Can Do of political worms

By Steve Connolly

BRISBANE, April 8 AAP - Peter Beattie is being upstaged in the Queensland political
media tart stakes by the self-proclaimed Can Do Man.

Since his unexpected win in the race for Brisbane Lord Mayor, Campbell Newman has become
the big story for local political pundits.

Mr Newman won back the lord mayoralty for the Liberals from Labor's Tim Quinn at the
March 27 Brisbane City Council election.

The Queensland premier was away at the time on an overseas trade mission and he's been
chasing after the energetic Mr Newman since he returned last weekend.

Although still to be officially sworn in, Mr Newman has followed up his frenzied mayoral
campaign with an equally effervescent range of activities as mayor-elect.

For example, today he was up early catching buses with peak hour commuters for a "hail
and ride" analysis of Brisbane's public transport.

Mr Newman's many media releases all bear the "Can Do" slogan which he introduced during
the local government election campaign.

The 40-year-old son of former federal ministers Jocelyn Newman and the late Kevin Newman
is matching it with the past master of media stunts Mr Beattie, who became known as the
media tart by swimming with sharks.

But stunts aside, what interests the media most in Mr Newman is that he's a Liberal
mayor who will have to work with a Labor-dominated council.

The prospect of multiple impasses has prompted many Brisbane news organisations to
now dedicate staff to covering local government.

With Mr Beattie's Labor party winning another whopping parliamentary majority on February
7, the state political scene is looking a bit of a yawn.

Despite a few worries on Mr Beattie's frontbench, such as Indigenous Affairs Minister
Liddy Clark who got herself into strife when a staffer took a bottle of wine into a dry
Aboriginal area, the next few years should be plain sailing for the state government.

The opposition continues to be in disarray with the Liberals and Nationals coalition
broken up and debate raging over whether they should each simply go it alone or reform
into some sort of new conservative movement.

But three years of argument over those issues seems a big bore compared to the potential
mess awaiting City Hall in Brisbane.

The fun and games at Brisbane City Council got off to a riveting start with accusations
of Labor document disposal while Mr Newman's brother-in-law was accused of entering the
offices of Brisbane Water on election night to check on any document shredding.

On the same night Mr Newman was elected, the Gold Coast elected businessman and former
Olympic distance runner Ron Clarke as its Lord Mayor.

Like Mr Newman, Mr Clarke has a vision of improving the Gold Coast's traffic problems
by building an underground road tunnel.

Mr Newman, a former army engineer, wants to construct five tunnels under the Brisbane
River to unclog the city's traffic.

Both mayors need state or federal government help to carry out these projects and they
both met this week with Mr Beattie.

Mr Beattie said afterwards that if Mr Newman's 12-year, five-tunnel strategy "stacks
up" he would be prepared to give council tolling powers, similar to that agreed to with
the former Labor administration.

But he said he was not prepared to contribute any state funds to the tunnels.

Which just goes to show that even if you call yourself the Can Do Man, your powers
are limited unless you control the big government bucks.

AAP sc/hu/mo

KEYWORD: NEWSCOPE QLD (AAP NEWS ANALYSIS)

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