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Provided by Research Online QUEENSLAND POLITICS Murray Broad

The analysis produced by the broad left already mentioned implications of that and the CPA in Queensland presents that struggle for Australian politics, the state as being in the forefront of a vast, Queensland experience can be a useful meter national ruling class offensive. We regard of the effectiveness of left and communist Queensland as a testing ground for anti­ strategies. For example, there have been democratic assaults to which the rest of the many important experiences in the Australian bourgeoisie often looks for establishment of a broad alliance capable of guidance. meeting the ruling class offensive, and This view of Queensland as a pacesetter in campaigns such as civil liberties have a national campaign of reaction directly provided the acid test for working relations counterposes itself to the old notion that of different sections of the left. Queensland is a stagnant backwater, dragging its feet behind the rest of Australia. This article covers four broad areas: Such a naive assessment was accompanied 1. It briefly analyses the forces forging a by the idea that Queenslanders were restructuring of Australian capitalism; somehow innately different from other Australians. 2. It examines the historical development of the Queensland political conjuncture; However, the old jokes about Queensland have been quickly muted as recent actions by 3. It examines the way in which these same the Court and Fraser governments have forces for economic restructuring have strikingly paralleled the established pattern inflicted themselves upon that political of the Petersen government. conjuncture and explains (I hope) why Queensland has become a pacesetter for I would contend, therefore, that an the reactionary offensive; understanding of recent developments in Queensland politics ia vital to correctly 4. It looks at the actual state of political assess the emerging pattern of events across struggle over the last two years, the continent. particularly with regard to the civil liberties movement, and attempts to Moreover, because of the intense state of spell out the possibilities for struggle in struggle in Queensland and because of the 1980. - 2 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW No. 74

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Now this is a very complex task and necessarily my analysis is far from complete. In fact, the very pace, complexity and depth of struggle of Queensland politics over the last few years has blurred the senses of many who have tried to understand it. Yet there is a method to the madness of Queensland politics and to uncover it I shall first turn to a description of the basic forces shaping Australian economic and political life. (For many people this section will be “common knowledge” but I think the necessity to site Queensland in the overall context of Australian capitalism is obvious.) The Australian economy is situated in a well-integrated world market. The form of capital which has come to dominate this world market is crystallised in the multinational corporation. The Australian economy is heavily influenced by multinational corporations, largely based in America, Britain and Japan. (1) Over 50 per cent of all company profits are payable to foreign shareholders. This overall situation is having drastic effects on the Australian economy. The But Australia itself reflects a miniature development of a global market, not just in version of the world pattern. Out of 30,000 goods produced, but in labor itself, has put registered Australian companies, some 200 account for half the total production. Some of Australian workers in an extremely poor the largest maintain a mini-imperialism in bargaining position. Many labor-intensive the South East Asian area. Most of whatls sectors of Australian industry are being left after 55 per cent of profits goes overseas, transferred “off-shore” to low-wage goes to the 10 per cent of Australians who countries. own 60 per cent of our wealth and receive 92 During 1973-74, some 1.4 million people per cent of the income from that wealth. were employed in the Australian So it is not really the extent of manufacturing industry but today, this has “foreignness” that matters. It is the dropped to 1.17 million — a decrease of 16.5 monopoly position of the largest companies per cent in five years. This situation is which leads them to behave in an redressed in only three areas: economically common fashion, regardless of 1. Extractive industries. Multinational their country of origin. corporations have to take minerals QUEENSLAND POLITICS 3

where they are found and consequently the rate of exploitation of Australian labor, Australia is becoming a major world and for smaller, indigenous capitalists, this mineral exporter. is absolutely essential if they are to coexist 2, Some industries such as the building with their multinational competitors. industry are “ naturally protected” . For So, when Malcolm Fraser says that example, if a house has to be built for an Australian labor must become more Australian worker, labor must be competitive, he is not talking about lowering employed in Australia to build it. There wages a few per cent. To compete with the is also a building boom associated with workers of the world’s most brutal military the construction phase of mining dictatorships, Australian wages will have to projects. be cut 80-95 per cent. 3. Highly energy-intensive processes are But, in doing this, the conservative forces being shifted into Australia because of necessarily come up against the very our abundant cheap energy. For extensive and well organised (if somewhat example, a host of aluminium firms are conservative) system of Australian unions. planning, or have already commenced, If the Australian economy is to be to build new smelters in Australia. restructured in line with the needs of Apart from these areas, the future of international capital, then the whole employment in Australian (particularly structure of wages and living conditions manufacturing) industry looks exceedingly which has been won through more than 100 grim. years of struggle, must be broken down. A second major feature of today’s Hence, for the ruling class, the act of Australia is the impact of the restructuring the Australian economy must scientific/technological revolution which is take place concurrently with the destruction intimately tied up with multinational of the means by which working people can corporations. In fact, it was the development defend themBelves. It is at this level that we of modern tyransport and communications see the intimate connection between which made it possible for corporations to economic and industrial struggles and the organise their operations on a transnational struggle for democratic rights. For without scale in the first place. Now these same forces the democratic rights to organise in trade are being turned against Australian unions, to conduct strikes, to picket, rally, workers, resulting in the loss of further jobs march, leaflet, speak at public gatherings, and tighter control over those that remain. etc., the working class lacks its principal organisational means for fighting back. The important thing to realise is that the impact of multinational corporations and It is in this context of the present rapid their associated technology are rapidly intensification of the struggle between labor developing tendencies which show signs and capital that Queensland must be sited only of becoming stronger. The future we can because that struggle has reached its look forward to, 10 or 20 years hence, is one in greatest development in Queensland. which perhaps the majority of present Queensland has been the pacesetter for employment has been eliminated. attacks on trade unionism and democratic How do smaller Australian capitalists who rights. do not have the option of moving their Before I go on to examine the list of attacks operations “off-shore” respond to this state on democratic rights I’d like to look at some of affairs — those that have traditionally basic features of the Queensland political been the backbone of Liberal Party support? economy which show why these attacks Their only option is to stay put and try to occurred in Queensland first. become more competitive internationally by Australia has been dominated by reducing labor costs. That is, by sacking industrial capitalism since before the some workers and lowering the wages and depression, but in Queensland the conditions of those remaining. manufacturing sector was secondary to Hence, all major fractions of the ruling primary production up until 1966 when the class have a common interest in increasing Queensland government proudly proclaimed 4 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW No. 74 that manufacturing production had passed government’s initiatives. And it also involved that of the primary sector. these governments in the characteristic contradiction of representing workers and During the 1960s, both the number and size maintaining a backward capitalist economy. of factories was increasing faster in Queensland relative to the rest of Australia. Because of the failure of strong This manufacturing growth was manufacturing development, a strong and accompanied by the “minerals boom” of the united industrial fraction of capital never late 1960s and 1970s. Queensland now is the emerged and a strong industrial working greatest export earner of all Australian class likewise never gained hegemony over states. In coal alone, $6,000 million worth the workers’ movement. Within this was mined between 1956 and 1978. Of this, stagnant economy, many conflicts between however, only $123 million was paid in unions and governments erupted. government royalties — a mere 2.2 per cent of the total value to mining companies. In the 1920s the railway and public service unions had to fight the state Arbitration This period also saw a concentration of Court for pay and conditions. In the post-war rural holdings with smaller land-holders years, big struggles were undertaken by the being gobbled up by larger ones, largely due ARU to gain simple flow-ons from federal to the pressure of wage rises. This has awards. important social and political consequences. The 1948 railway strike was a bitter Self-employed proprietors are threatened contest between left forces in the ARU and by rising labor costs for rural workers and the workshops’ unions, and anti-communists are either forced to work harder themselves in the AWU, Catholic elements in the or go further into debt, or both.{2) This makes Queensland government and the ruling them very anti-labor and embittered by the classes. “easy life” in the cities. It is from here that the National Party gains most of its support. Finally, in 1957 the Gair cabinet was expelled from the Queensland ALP by a The striking feature of Queensland is that coalition of the AWU and the Trades Hall until recently it lacked a strong industrial group. The Queensland ALP has never sector and its consequent economic recovered from the split, but it is interesting backwardness contributed to a long history that Ed Casey who has led the recent swing of bitter class struggle. to the right by the Queensland ALP is Ttie strikes of the 1890s spread to moving to reorient the party towards rural Queensland and saw the successful elements once again. In this case, Ed Casey mobilisation of the ruling classes throughout and Co. may be seen as a regrouping of the eastern Australia against the rural workers. old “ Grouper” forces. This defeat acted as a catalyst for the The Queensland Country Party was formation of the Labor Party which held formed in 1915 but because of Labor’s office from 1915-1957 except for the years agrarian orientation it found difficulty in 1929-32. organising politically. After reorganising in The 1912 Brisbane general strike lasted 1944, the Country Party sought ways of one month and spread to all of Queensland. joining forces with the emerging Liberal Peter Murphy says (in his as yet unpublished Party. The opportunity arose in 1957 when thesis on Australian coal mining): the Labor split opened the way for a It was defeated and so was the politics of Country/Liberal win. The famous Labor militant industrial action. The A WU gerrymander in 1949 favored the Country established its dominance over the Party and only discriminated against the Queensland ALP and maintained it ever after. Liberals. Thus, the Country Party has been Its dominance has always been challenged by able to dominate the Liberals ever since. the Trades Hall group of Brisbane craft and trade unions which represented the industrial To quote Peter Murphy again: working class of Queensland; the A W U represented all rural workers in one massive In the 1960s and ‘70s the objective economic union. criteria have changed. Now it is the The A WU domination made rural interests manufacturing sector which dominates the the prominent matter of the Labor productive forces. This is remarkable when it QUEENSLAND POLITICS 5

is considered that the state has been under Ideologically, the only real force opposed to Country Party domination during this period, this has been the CPA and its strength was though in coalition with the Liberal Party. drastically depleted during the Cold War. The tensions within this coalition have increased as the economy has developed. This So far I have dealt with the overall factors has involved the transformation of the forcing a restructuring of Australian Country Party to the National Party, capitalism and of the specific historic Queensland Branch, and its attempts to seize composition of Queensland’s political life decisive control of the parliament, and the bureaucracy. upon which these forces have superimposed themselves. The Country Party has held decisive It is this interaction of restructuring forces control through the portfolios of Premier, with the particular fabric of Queensland Mines Minister and Primary Industries politics which has allowed the rightwing Minister. In 1971, the Co-ordinator General offensive to take on so quickly here. of Public Works was reorganised and put into We have established that Queensland the Premier’s Department. The Co-ordinator already had a long history of repressive General became the top public servant and the Premier, through the Co-ordinator government, a labor movement which was General, directly oversees all major projects ideologically conservative and a strong, in the state. extreme rightwing element. In 1974, the Premier established a The National Party has a long history of Priorities Review Committee in his own political dominance and, while its electoral department. This allowed the Treasurer of base is very conservative, the Nationals see the time, Gordon Chalk, to be overruled and themselves in a progressive role, developing the Treasury was reduced to an accounting the State of Queensland. body. This led to Chalk’s retirement in 1976. Thus, when the first signs of the overall The conclusion to this logic is that the restructuring of the Australian economy hit Country Party changed its name to the Queensland in the form of the minerals National Party in 1975 and projected itself as boom, the National Party grasped the nettle and went all-out to encourage massive the one conservative party of Queensland, capable of representing both rural and urban corporate investment. As resistance to the effects of this investment grew, the interests. It had been riding high in the Nationals moved quickly to silence it. parliament after its victory in the 1974 election when'it captured most of the seats In the face of all the facts, and against Labor lost, and came close to being able to great public opposition, the state govern alone. government allowed the giant CRA to build a powerhouse at Tarong when the contract The liberal Party has so far been unable to overcome the National Party forces, but the should have gone to a smaller Australian tide may be turning. In attempting to consortium which wanted to build at characterise itself as the one and only Millmerran.(3) conservative party to manage a developing There have been many attacks upon the Queensland, the Nationals appear a bit too living conditions of Aboriginal people for the “modern” for their rural power base. Sensing sake of minerals concealed beneath their this, the Liberals have decided to conduct land. In country areas of Queensland, Blaeks three-cornered electoral contests and the are likely to be herded onto reserves and used struggle seems to be on in earnest. for cheap labor, while in the cities they are Unfortunately, the Queensland ALP has subject to brutal police harassment. This not capitalised on the recent expansion of the state of affairs is legislatively encouraged working class. One important reason for this through the infamous “ Queensland Acts” . is the destructive role that strong anti­ Companies like Comalco and Utah have communist sentiments have historically had railways, townships and entire ports played in the Queensland labor movement. built for them (at public expense) by the state This anti-communism is epitomised by the government. Comalco’s Gladstone alumina strength of extreme rightwing organisations refinery purportedly gets some of the world’s such as the NCC and the League of Rights. cheapest electricity (0.5 cents/kh.). I say 6 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW No. 74 purportedly because the exact figure is a state secret.(4) The sale of a large tract of land on the coast near Yeppoon to the Japanese millionaire/industrialist Iwasaki, attracted mass, public resentment. In its attack on working class organisation, the Petersen Government has employed many means to divide and suppress working people. The patriarchal nature of Australian society is reinforced through an education system so conservative that a small, rightwing pressure group headed by Rona Joyner can silence even slightly progressive material like MACOS and SEMP. Twelve per cent of Queenslanders have more than 9 years’ schooling, compared with a national average of 18 per cent. Forty-three per cent of 16-year-old Queenslanders are still at school, government sees a well-controlled working compared to 57 per cent nationally. class as a prerequisite to big investment In and out of school, Australia’s most programs. repressive abortion and rape laws act to keep Hence, in the latter half o f 1977, many Queensland women politically Queensland was seething with discontent. inactive Political sensitivities had been numbed by Queensland’s drug laws are extremely almost daily outrages. There was no credible severe, giving police the right to enter and parliamentary alternative (and no possible search without a warrant. Many young one, given the gerrymander), no legal vent to people live in constant fear and remain the frustration and anger that was building politically inactive because of the threat of up in the population. police action. Then in September 1977 on the eve of the Union organisation has come under 5,000-strong Ted Zaphir trade union rally increasing attack from Petersen who takes and under conditions of a rapidly growing every opportunity to use his well-oiled anti-uranium movement, Petersen banned publicity machine to decry the “red Menace” , political street marches. Yet when more subtle forms of coercion have Almost every country newspaper, no failed, Petersen has never baulked at using matter how small, is circulated with copies blatant force. of the Premier’s press statements and there is Queensland has a long history of scarcely one country town he does not visit in repressive use of the police and the law. The the Government aircraft. Mt Isa strike of 1964-65 is a notable example Although the change to the legal code was where police were mobilised to back up the slight, it served as a vent for public feeling State Industrial Commission. The Nicklin and the civil liberties movement quickly government on that occasion had to back became an extraparliamentary focus of down in the face of nationwide protests. opposition to the state government. States of emergency were declared over an I’m not going to try to recap on the whole eight week lockout by MIM in 1961 and again history of the civil liberties campaign. Most over the Springbok Rugby tour in 1971 when importantly, it has served as a pivot of 1,000 police were mobilised. opposition by progressive forces and has More recently, police involvement at Cedar taken that opposition into a qualitatively Bay, in street marches and in union and anti­ new form by physically confronting the uranium pickets have shown that the Queensland state and its police force. QUEENSLAND POLITICS 7

It has exposed Petersen's real intentions Other big sticks in Court’s legislative where they are most blatantly obvious — on arsenal include the Flour Act (1977), the the streets. Essentials Foodstuffs and Essential The movement has scored some observable Commodities Act (1979) and the industrial political victories. Notably, it strained the Arbitration Act Amendments Bill (1979). coalition relationship to the point where 13 Clearly, the Court government is Liberals crossed the parliamentary floor conducting a multi-faceted anti-democratic over the destruction of a pub called the Belle assault similar to that seen in Queensland Vue. The movement helped remove “ Right over the last two years. to Work” laws from the political agenda. Since the beginning of the campaign the The Fraser government has extended its National Party strategy of moving into nation-wide front of union bashing laws with metropolitan electorates has been the Commonwealth Employees Employment completely defeated through the loss of the Provisions Act (CEEP), the Commonwealth seats of Wynnum and Redcliffe, (A 12 per Employees Redeployment and Retirement cent swing was recorded against the Bill (CERR), Industrial Relations Bureau National Party in Redcliffe.) legislation, new ASIO Acts and the latest amendments to the Conciliation and Also, it has built a stronger and more Arbitration Act which brought protests from active left in Queenslexid and has helped Deputy President Staples and all 25 build an understanding by the left nationally commissioners. of the nature of the rightwing assault. There have been over 2,000 arrests to date and over These measures have accompanied $i00,000 in legal costs. economic policies which have already significantly reduced the living standards of I think, the Australian political experience Australian workers. in recent months has completely borne out the analysis presented so far. Nationally, Since 1975 the real value of wages has there has been a rapid escalation of the decreased by more than $25 per week. Partial ruling class offensive. indexation has pushed down the wages share of the national income by at least four Recent events in Western Australia (a state per cent. Social welfare programs have been economically most similar to Queensland) drastically cut. At last year’s Premiers’ have been a kind of political deja vu. Conference, the states received, in real terms, The arrests of unionists which sparked off 38 per cent less for welfare housing and 20 a national stoppage were initially portrayed per cent less for works programs. as a foolish blunder by the Court Figures for the NSW economy suggest that government. In 1977, the move by the this state will be $900 million down in Petersen government to ban street marches revenue, forcing it to borrow heavily on the was seen likewise. overseas (multi-national dominated) money The law which allowed the arrests of market. Marks and Carmichael was one piece of a Meanwhile, tax concessions to the biggest host of undemocratic legislation. corporations rose from $280 million in 1974 The 1974 “ Fuel and Energy” Bill gives to over $900 million in 1978. state-of-emergency powers to the West Even at official government level, the Australian government to intervene in realisation that unemployment is growing in industrial disputes in these areas. Recent direct proportion to the destruction of jobs in changes to the Police Act make interference manufacturing industries receives de facto with state government property an offence recognition. punishable by six months’ jail or $1,500 fine. This manoeuvre directly resulted from Nationally, the working class response to protests against a new alumina refinery. The these economic and anti-democratic assaults Education Department has been given has reached levels unprecedented for many powers similar to those of the Morals years. We have seen national stopwork Committee for assessing graduating action over the West Australian arrests. Queensland teachers. Telecom workers have taken national action 8 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW No. 74 and Commonwealth government employees have been involved in national disputes around the CERR and CEEP Bills. Indeed, the militant stand taken by so-called “ white collar” workers is one of the must heartening aspects of the present industrial scene. Serious splits have appeared in the ranks of the coalition partieB at the federal level and in most state branches. One of the most interesting features of the present crisis is that all major political parties are experiencing severe internal tensions. Divisions among the conservative forces can be exploited by the left but only if the left itself has a proper understanding of the nature of those divisions. Not to be outdone by the actions of the Fraser and Court governments, Bjelke- Petersen’s National Party has unleashed a new wave of undemocratic legislation in recent months. * strike funds are banned; After months of threats by Bjelke-Petersen * anyone who suffers damage or loss against power workers campaigning for a 35- through “unlawful” strikes may sue the hour week, the Essential Services Act finally union(s) involved; became law in October 1979. It is not possible * scab labor is protected and employers here to give a detailed account of the are required to keep records of those who circumstances of its introduction. scab so that strikers can be blacklisted; Ostensibly it bans strikes in essential * state government employees can be industries which are defined as — transport; directed to act as strike breakers; fire brigades; hospitals and ambulances; electricity and water; garbage, sanitary, * the Minister appointed to control an cleaning or sewerage services. essential service has dictatorial powers to direct all the operations of the But cabinet can declare any industry to be industry, including requisitioning an essential service. property and authorising entry on land; Once any union rejects an Arbitration * union members quoted in the press as Court decision and continues industrial supporting a strike are breaking the law; action, a Period of Emergency can be they are automatically guilty and must declared in that industry. prove their innocence; During the Period of Emergency: * judicial notice is to be taken of every national television station, every * the union or unions involved can be national broadcasting station, every deregistered or fined $10,000 and union commercial station in Australia, placing officials can be sacked; great limits upon the freedom of the * individual unionists can be fined $1,000 press. but will be sacked automatically if they The Act bypasses and overrules the strike for more than 24 hours; Conciliation and Arbitration Commission * individuals and unions refusing to pay and the Industrial Court. It gives emergency fines can have their property powers, not to parliament, but to the confiscated; Governor-in-Council (that is, cabinet plus the Governor). * special agreements between unions and employers are prohibited with a On September 25 last year, Sir William maximum penalty of $100,000; Knox, the Queensland Health Minister, QUEENSLAND POLITICS 9 foreshadowed legislation to close the few so- movement and particularly in the Labor called loopholes in Queensland’s anti­ Party. For example, around Australia, the abortion laws which are already the conservative press has given full support to harshest and most restrictive in Australia. Bob Hawke in his bid to take control of the federal ALP. The capitalist press will always The government’s proposed legislation is support members of the labor movement who aimed at closing Queensland’s only abortion talk in terms of “the national interest” rather clinic. It aims to make abortions available than from a class point of view — they find it only in public hospitals, but this in no way far easier to allow the labor movement to be means that abortion will be readily neutralised through rightwing leadership available. Under present Queensland laws, than face an all-out confrontation. hospitals have already been geared to make At this point, I want to turn to a brief abortions available only in exceptional examination of the fate of the civil liberties circumstances. movement. If the legislation is passed, only women in To commence I should say that the imminent danger of death will be able to organisation of the Civil Liberties Campaign have legal abortions. Pregnancy as a result Group is now essentially dead. There are of rape or incest will not be considered several contributing reasons for this, and we sufficient reason for an abortion, nor will must cast our minds back over a year to exposure to rubella. All this will be done understand why. under the liberal pretence of attempting to stop backyard abortions. The government’s December 7, 1978 was a climax for the “concern” seems to overlook the fact that movement. Over a year of rallies, marches backyard abortionists are only able to and arrests had finally forced the flourish if abortions are not freely available. Queensland Trades and Labor Council to sponsor a confrontation over the street While this rightwing offensive was march ban. On that day, prominent ALP and reflected indirectly through the election of Ed union officials from around Australia came Casey to head the Queensland ALP, Casey to Brisbane to spend a night in the watch- has consolidated his own position by house. Members of the state ALP were isolating and attacking the socialist left, noticeably absent, reflecting the threats of using undisguised “red baiting” as an their newly elected leader, Ed Casey. ideological cover. At this point, it was fully expected that one A member of the Right to Life or two more such confrontations would force organisation, Casey tried to “out-Joh” Joh, the government to repeal the anti-march by presenting a petition to state parliament laws. However, pressure from Casey was calling for the closure of the Greenslopes sufficient to force the TLC (who are hardly a abortion clinic. group of raging revolutionaries at the best of times) to back down from further He has failed to show any real opposition confrontations. to the Essential Services legislation and has refused to support the strikes by power This produced enormous demoralisation workers which prompted the legislation in among people who had campaigned long and the first place. hard for trade union support. The March 15 demonstration was called off and the April In a period when the expansion of the 28 rally voted against marching. Sectarian urban workforce, combined with mass infighting was rampant and a section of the resentment of the state government, offers movement argued that the Civil Liberties Labor a militant base of support, the ALP Campaign Group (CLCG) should focus the strategy revolves around recapturing the thrust of its attention against ALP leader, Ed conservative rural vote, which it lost over 20 Casey. years ago. This approach has been consistently Again Queensland represents only the argued against by those in the CLCG who most advanced phase of a process which is believe that most Queenslanders see the going on nationally. I am referring, of course, Petersen government and not the Labor to the growth of the right wing in the labor opposition as the principal enemy and that 10 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW No. 74

the way to fight Casey is to expose his position in the broader context of carrying on the fight against the Queensland government. By the time of the July 26 rally and march, total confusion beset the movement, little propaganda work was done and only 2,000 people attended, with trade unionists being notably absent. Shortly after this, the state government was on the verge of introducing the Essential Services legislation and it issued two march permits in an attempt to defuse the civil liberties movement, which had for two years been its most consistent and dangerous opposition. The first of these was issued to the Campaign Against Nuclear Power for Nagasaki Day, two days after Hiroshima which revealed that 56.5 per cent of Day for which they had originally applied Australians thought that police should have and on only a few days' notice. more power to deal with law and order. Only Both Bjelke Petersen and Charles Porter 16.2 per cent thought that police needed less had earlier claimed the civil liberties power. In Brisbane, the figure differed movement was dead and they hoped that the considerably. Only 37.6 per cent thought that short notice and changed date of the permit police needed more power, and 25.9 per cent would produce a small march to back up their thought that they needed less. Brisbane had claims. the lowest percentage of any capital city of people who thought that police needed more However, over 4,000 people marched that power, and the highest percentage of people evening and both anti-uranium and civil who thought that police needed less. liberties themes were well understood by the public. It is obvious that the constant conflict between police and demonstrators in the Following this, the government issued one streets of Brisbane has had a poor effect on other permit to a student march from the public image of the police force. It also Queensland University. This time no appears that the majority of people in chances were taken as the conditions of the Brisbane resent the way in which the police permit specified a maximum of 500 people in are used by the government to implement the march. unpopular laws. As 1979 drew to a close, the Essential The civil liberties movement has Services and anti-abortion legislation highlighted and exacerbated rifts in the became the most important issues facing the coalition, It has united broad sections of the Queensland left and the civil liberties issue left and progressive movements against was overshadowed, if not forgotten. actions of the government. It has formed Thus, a series of factors has contributed to links with the trade unions and many other the organisational demise of the CLCG. But organisations, and developed alliances it would be quite wrong to suggest that the which will exist for some time to come, if we movement against the Petersen government work at encouraging this unity. is dead. The problem which confronts us in National Party electoral support is at its Queensland today is one of finding a new lowest for many years and for this the civil and more appropriate organisational form liberties campaign must take credit. for the movement against the government. Now that the initial outrage over the In The Australian of November 11, 1979, banning of street marches has subsided, civil the results of an opinion poll were published liberties can no longer be presented just as a QUEENSLAND POLITICS 11 high and mighty principle. We must point vacuum of political leadership for that out to people how the issue of civil liberties counter-offensive. affects them personally. I believe that the only possible form of Over the coming months, I have no doubt leadership is that of a broad alliance of that you will see a growing movement of forces, including progressive sections of the extra parliamentary opposition to the Labor Party, communists and other sections Queensland government. The main thrust of of the left. For these groups to work together this movement will be the Essential Services effectively will entail a reduction of the Act, the anti-abortion legislation and the sectarian mistakes of the last two years and 1980 state elections. Every time this, or any the only way to achieve this is through the other progressive movement, takes to the common acceptance of a realistic analysis of streets in a mass way it must confront the Queensland politics. ban on street marches. The civil liberties Such an analysis should lay the basis of a issue in Queensland, therefore, cannot die — left strategy, one part of which would be it will simply be reborn in new forms. mutual assistance by campaigns for What does the future of Queensland democratic rights in most states and politics hold? nationally. We have an embattled National Party, The Australian left cannot blind itself to struggling to be seen as the one political force the reality of Queensland politics. capable of carrying through the economic For as long as that state is seen as a development and modernisation of laughable anachronism, the politics of Queensland. But it is in a growing void as the Queensland can only deteriorate and the rest need to stress the mining and manufacturing of Australia can only become more like sectors places it increasingly out of step with Queensland. its rural power base, as the manufacturing sector itself faces growing international competition and as popular discontent with its rule grows. REFERENCES We have a Liberal Party which has finally 1. Indeed, much of Australia’s post-war decided to compete with the Nationals economic history can be explained in terms of electorally in an attempt to wrest power from the hegemonic struggle between contending them. But, the Liberals are still caught by British and American capital — a struggle narrow, Brisbane-based support and by the which American capital won in the 1960s. fact that although the excesses of the 2. Earlier this year, the Petersen government National Party offend the morality of many received wide condemnation when it Liberals, the success of the anti-union, anti­ threatened to introduce a political watchdog democratic assault by the Nationals is into the State Industrial Commission who crucial to the economic survival of those would oversee the activities of the other five. same liberals. This was directly precipitated by a State Industrial Commission decision to grant And we have a Labor Party which is higher wages to rural workers. totally, politically disoriented. Rather than 3. One of the major partners in this Australian come to grips with the new realities of consortium was Thiess Holdings. After economic life, it opts for increasingly denying Thiess work on the big powerhouse conservative solutions. Because it does not contract, Petersen has turned around and want to change the system but merely to attacked the bid by southern-based CSR to administer it better than the coalition, it take over Thiess. never challenges basic economic conditions 4. In the last three years, the state government and is simply a pale shadow of state has taken both the Electricity Authority and government policies. The ALP has the Water Board from the Brisbane City successfully destroyed its leadership of its Council and placed them in its own own class base. departments. These were attempts to centralise the production and distribution of As the need for a working class counter­ power in anticipation of the expansion of offensive to the growing rightwing push energy-intensive industries, particularly becomes even more obvious, so does the aluminium smelting.