Former LNP MP Chris Davis has called for an early state election after a large swing against the Queensland Government in Saturday's by-election.

Voters in Stafford went to the polls on Saturday to replace Dr Davis, the state's former assistant health minister, who quit in May after clashing with the Government on several policy issues.

Labor's Dr Anthony Lynham won the seat in Brisbane's north, with a huge swing of 18.6 per cent against the LNP.

The win adds a ninth MP to Labor's ranks in the 89-seat State Parliament.

Dr Lynham secured 61.5 per cent of the vote after preferences, which was the biggest swing at a Queensland by-election since changes were made to the Electoral Act in 1992.

Dr Davis said Queenslanders needed to go back to the polls before next year.

"You can't govern with that degree of dissatisfaction and uncertainly, and again I reiterate the best thing for Queensland would be to go to an election soon, rather than next year," he said.

read more: http://www.news.net/article/1648347?utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=outbrainamplify      

Given the scale of the arrogance displayed he and his Government, the apology offered by Campbell Newman this week is manifestly inadequate, writes Alex McKean.

Mr Hannay’s defamation action is, of course, being brought against the Attorney-General, Jarrod Bleijie, as well as the premier.

In April this year, I wrote:

‘...the Newman-Bleijie axis has been incredibly destructive of the trust the public placed in the LNP two years ago. So much goodwill has been squandered that many of those who have been overshadowed by this pair of incompetents will stand to lose their seats in the not too distant future.’

But, in the aftermath of the Stafford carnage, the Premier has ruled out a reshuffle, resisting pressure to remove Bleijie.

In a masterpiece of self-contradiction, the Premier, first, said his entire team backed everything Bleijie had done. But then Mr. Newman said that he and his Attorney-General would be seeking a meeting with senior members of the judiciary to "smooth over" the continuing feud between the judiciary and his Government, for which Bleijie is primarily to blame.

Those meetings might be considerably more fruitful if the Premier had the backbone to sack Bleijie and take along a freshly-minted Attorney-General and not one burdened with the baggage of leaking confidential discussions withsenior judges and the President of the Queensland Bar Association.

If the Premier were serious about rebuilding relationships with the judiciary and the legal fraternity, he would recognise that Bleijie is an irredeemable liability and throw him under the political bus.

On the way out the door, Bleijie could assist the LNP’s electoral prospects by issuing a few apologies of his own, at the very least to those people who thought they could rely on him to keep confidences.

For instance, one person due an apology from Bleijie is Ross Martin, the former head of the CMC, whom Bleijie disgracefully painted as having "resigned in the wake of a shredding scandal", when actually Mr. Martin quit due to ill health, requiring a lung transplant.

Read all at: http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/newman-and-bleijies-dismal-non-apology,6705

Queensland’s corruption watchdog has dropped investigations into Clive Palmer and the state’s deputy premier, Jeff Seeney.

Seeney referred the mining magnate and federal MP to the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) in June for allegedly trying to buy political support.

He alleged that Palmer sought special treatment for his western Queensland mining investments shortly after the Liberal National Party’s landslide victory in 2012.

But the CCC announced on Friday that it had ended the investigation because the prospects of proving corrupt conduct were too limited.

Its acting chairman, Dr Ken Levy, wrote to Seeney on Friday saying there were no grounds to suspect Palmer would have had any success in gaining preferential treatment.

“There is no evidence that the conduct alleged did in fact result in any corruption within the state government,” he wrote.

“The commission does not consider the information available provides sufficient grounds to indicate that an investigation would likely be productive.

“For these reasons, the commission does not intend to take any further action.”

But Palmer said the CCC had dropped the investigation because Seeney’s allegations were not true. “It’s not surprising. It was a false complaint. There was no truth to what he said, and the evidence is clear that there was no truth in what he said,” he said.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/29/clive-palmer-given-reprieve-from-queenslands-corruption-watchdog

meanwhile, using the backdator rubber stamp...

Queensland's deputy premier has denied giving special treatment to a quarry business that had donated generously to the Liberal National Party.

Farmers at Harlin in southeast Queensland are upset that Karreman Quarries will have more scope to mine for sand and gravel in the Upper Brisbane River.

While the company had mined in the area for two decades, the ABC has revealed the Department of Natural Resources was considering legal action against Karreman.

Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney met with the company's owner Dick Karreman in December.

Two months later, Mr Seeney asked bureaucrats to draw up retrospective special legislation after the department had ordered Karreman to stop extracting sand and gravel because it didn't have the required permit, the ABC reports.

Amendments to the Water Act went through parliament without protest from the Labor opposition, enabling Karreman to quarry the lower bank of a river.

The laws were also backdated to 2010, with the deputy premier arguing he had opposed Labor's changes to the Water Act four years ago.

Mr Seeney has denied any special treatment for the company, saying: 'As shown by my dealings with Clive Palmer, everyone gets treated equally by our government and we deal with all issues based on the facts of the matter at the time.'

A mining company faces possible action after illegally bulldozing a swathe of bushland in central Queensland to build a road through areas regarded as habitat of state significance.

The company, Goondicum Resources, admitted it did not have the required state approval. Its managing director told the ABC he now hopes to gain it retrospectively.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-23/mining-company-faces-charges-of-illegal-land-clearing-in-qld/5903976

Read also above articles

The Clive Palmer-inspired inquiry into the activities and finances of the Queensland government is far more than a celebrity face-off between a coal baron turned parliamentarian and premier Campbell Newman.

It’s the best chance we’ve had in years to shine a light into the dark chambers of “Queensland Incorporated”: the donations, questionable mine approvals and the revolving door of senior staff job-shifting between government and the mining industry.

The environmental regulation of resources industries in Queensland is broken. Not one coal mine has been rejected on environmental grounds after going through the approvals process in the state’s history.

Community concerns have been raised over large political donations from the mining industry and the environmental approvals that appear to follow these donations.

According to the AFR, one former coal-mining tycoon was allegedly granted an approval to amend his environmental authority for maintenance dredging near the Great Barrier Reef just one week after purportedly donating $150,000 to the Queensland LNP. The tycoon in question denies any link.

Campbell Newman has reneged on previous assurances that he wouldn’t support the expansion of the Acland coal mine in southern Queensland. The Queensland LNP and federal Liberal party together have received $700,000 in donations from the owners of the mine between 2010 and 2013.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/21/queenslands-future-is-more-than-a-celebrity-face-off-between-palmer-and-newman