Qld: A year of historic highs and lows for Bligh

AAP General News (Australia)
12-24-2009
Qld: A year of historic highs and lows for Bligh

By Gabrielle Dunlevy, State Political Correspondent

BRISBANE, Dec 24 AAP - With giddy highs and crushing lows, Queensland Premier Anna
Bligh had a rollercoaster year in 2009 and is braced for more twists and turns in the
new year.

Ms Bligh became Australia's first elected woman premier in March and was elated to
have done it in Queensland - a state considered least likely to take such progressive
steps.

But aspects of the June state budget, particularly the government's decision to sell
assets, quickly sent Ms Bligh's popularity crashing back down to earth.

The plan to sell parts of Queensland Rail, the Port of Brisbane and Abbot Point Coal
Terminal, Queensland Motorways and Forestry Plantations Queensland was not revealed in
the election campaign and has resulted in fiery backlash from voters and the unions that
keep Labor afloat.

Last month, with her approval rating at an all-time low of 30 per cent, Ms Bligh -
a beaming victor just months before - conceded the sell-off program may cost her the next
election.

Among her government's achievements in 2009, Ms Bligh lists gains in student literacy
and numeracy, improvement in hospital waiting lists and upgrades to Brisbane's busy Gateway
Motorway.

But the federal government decision to quash the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam and
the jailing of former Labor minister Gordon Nuttall for receiving secret payments battered
a premier who was already bruised in the polls.

"In government, you have to be prepared to deal with the curveballs when they come,
and we've had plenty," she told AAP.

"It's been an absolute rollercoaster.

"We've seen some of the biggest political highs and the lowest political lows of my
political career.

"But ultimately, I understand that this job is a job where you have to deal with everything
that comes onto your plate and not be dispirited or disheartened, and I feel a great deal
of optimism and excitement about 2010."

On the agenda in 2010 is the rollout of reforms around government accountability, a
controversial crackdown on gangs and, most pointedly, the start of those asset sales.

Ms Bligh said she was braced for a painful road ahead - adamant it would not be as
damaging as the alternatives of halting the government's building program or further tax
hikes.

"The asset sales are not an end in themselves, they are a means to an end," she said.

"I never take my eye off what the end is, and the end is a stronger budget, a stronger
economy that delivers for Queenslanders."

Also ahead are decisions on the future drinking water supply for southeast Queensland,
a region that continues to feel the strain of population growth.

With federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett deeming the Traveston Crossing Dam
too environmentally risky, the state government will look at building more expensive desalination
plants on the Sunshine Coast and Bribie Island.

The dam was the target of a vocal grassroots campaign in the Mary Valley, near Gympie,
and now the communities earmarked for desal plants are swinging into action.

The Bligh government argued farming in the Mary Valley had driven species like the
lungfish to the verge of extinction and claimed a dam could have saved them.

But with the failed plan meaning normal life can now resume in the valley, Ms Bligh
says the onus falls on Mr Garrett to protect the animals he acknowledged were threatened.

The federal government will be asked to pitch in to fund the desal plants, but the
premier says it should go further.

"Peter Garrett would not have made the decision that he made if these species weren't
already under significant pressure, and the dam would have given them an opportunity to
recover and to regenerate their numbers," Ms Bligh said.

"I personally think that the Environmental Protection Biodiversity and Conversation
Act does not contain sufficient obligations on the federal government where they resolve
that a project should not go ahead.

"It should generate some responsibilities for species protection."

The water fight with the federal government will be just one of the challenges Ms Bligh
faces in 2010.

AAP gd/jl/apm

KEYWORD: BLIGH (AAP NEWSFEATURE WITH PIX) RPT

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