Little Comfort In Goss Win
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday September 14, 1992
BRISBANE: The Keating Government would not be able to derive much comfort from Labor's expected win in the Queensland election, the Federal ALP president, Mr Barry Jones, said yesterday.
Mr Jones said Canberra was not in a position to take any credit if the Goss Government was re-elected, and it was understandable that the Queensland ALP did not want to be associated with the Prime Minister during the campaign.
While Mr Jones was giving his typically frank assessment, the Queensland Premier stepped up his campaign by engaging in a spirited bout of southernerbashing.
Mr Goss hinted that Queensland might take the NSW Coalition Government to the High Court over what he said was the failure of NSW to pay its fair share of the cost of replenishing Gold Coast beaches.
Queensland has long claimed that the eroded beaches are not being replenished naturally because the normal northerly movement of sand has been blocked by breakwaters at the mouth of the Tweed River.
Mr Goss said the NSW Premier, Mr Fahey, had not responded to a letter sent to him in July, in which Queensland offered to pay half the cost, or $17.5 million, of a bypass project to pump the blocked sand north to the beaches.
He said NSW had offered to pay only $11.1 million, with Queensland paying$23.4 million, although the problem was "basically the fault of NSW", and Queensland had already spent millions on beach replenishment.
Speaking from his Canberra office, Mr Jones said a Queensland Labor win on Saturday would boost morale in the party federally, and might help consolidate some marginal Federal seats, but it could not be claimed as a vote of confidence in Canberra's economic policies.
"Wayne Goss is running his own race and I don't see that we have been integrally linked," Mr Jones said. "He has not been calling on us very heavily, and I think that is reasonable. The important thing is that, after the election, Labor is, for the first time in many years, going to again be the natural party in government in Queensland."
Mr Jones said the anticipated outcome in Queensland confirmed an increasing trend by the electorate to distinguish between State and Federal issues, and it was clear the Queensland campaign was being fought on State issues.
It was also understandable that the State ALP had not invited Mr Keating to campaign in Queensland: "There is powerful evidence in the past that the approval of southern leaders is not necessarily appreciated there."
The Queensland ALP secretary, Mr Wayne Swan, said that, despite an intensive campaign by the State conservative parties to associate Mr Goss with the Keating Government, "Federal issues haven't come into it all".
Meanwhile, controversy continued over the Queensland Liberal Party's advertisements that blamed two killings on the Goss Government.
The respected Jesuit priest, Father Frank Brennan, attacked the advertisements. Writing in The Catholic Leader, Father Brennan said he was disgusted at the "wanton exploitation" of the distraught families of crime victims.
© 1992 Sydney Morning Herald
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