Surfpolitik Queensland: A terminal state of mind

In: Surfpolitik by Stu Nettle 51 Comments Wed 1st Aug '12

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Working in the media has turned me into a cynical bastard. Oh yes it has. Rather than reading the news for entertainment or information I now deconstruct it for commercial or political motives, and such motives almost always exist. Of course you don't have to work in the media to realise this but when you're absorbed in it each day you become sensitised to cynicism.

So when news that a cruise ship terminal was being proposed at Tugun on the Gold Coast I immediately wondered at the ulterior motive - it was just too bizarre, too left field. Destroying a perfectly good beach with kilometres of quarried rock for the sake of an oversized marina when there was a natural waterway at the other end of the Gold Coast? It didn't make sense.

I suspected a strategic move by the government: Declare a demand for cruise ships, unveil a ghastly blight at Spot A and a slightly less grotesque version at Spot B, then have the populace choose between the two evils.

Just by chance the government has earmarked two other spots for a terminal, at the Spit and in the Broadwater. Despite this it's the big Tugun proposal that's garnering all the headlines.

It seemed to me a transparent ploy, too obvious to take seriously, but recent events have me wondering if I might have overestimated the political machinations north of the border. For one, the new Mayor of the Gold Coast, Tom Tate, recently went on ABC radio advocating the Tugun proposal. Infrastructure, funding and plans were all accounted for. He even tied it in with the Kirra groin extension to woo the 'surfing fraternity'.

He's an interesting fellow this Tom Tate. One of his election promises was the establishment of a 'cultural precinct' on the Gold Coast and he recently undertook a US study trip to research it. An estimation of Tate's cultural vision is achieved by noting the cities he visited: Las Vegas and Miami.

Then there's the Queensland state government which also has a newly elected leader in Campbell Newman. Premier Newman's Liberal National Party won a landslide victory over Labor in March this year. It's worth noting here that both Premier Newman and Mayor Tate are civil engineers by profession and have both worked in the construction industry – they know how to dig up and reshape the land.

In his opening speech to Queensland's Parliament Newman paid tribute to his political forebears, in particular the sunshine state's longest serving premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Peterson. "His government built this state into an economic powerhouse that led the way for our country for so long," Mr Newman said of Sir Joh.

Forgive me readers if you think I'm straying too far from the coast, but in order to understand what Premier Newman is capable of we need to know from what stock he is born and also what he aspires to.

During his tenure as premier, Sir Joh fought an ongoing battle over World Heritage listing of the Great Barrier Reef. Heritage protection, he said, would harm Queensland's economy. Instead Sir Joh wanted to blast numerous shipping channels straight through the reef. It's reported he proposed using nuclear weaponry to do this.

It sounded to me like one of those tall stories that Queensland is known for, and truth be told I couldn't find any evidence to validate the claim. However, it did become more conceivable when I learned that at one time Sir Joh planned to eradicate the Crown of Thorns starfish from the Great Barrier Reef by using nuclear weaponry. Sir Joh didn't ever tread softly.

Sir Joh also had an alarming capacity for ignorance. The following anecdote comes from Mungo MacCallum:

Many years ago a group of concerned scientists persuaded the then premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, to take a trip to a threatened area of the [Great Barrier] reef so he could see the damage his policies of malign neglect were causing. He returned bubbling with enthusiasm. "I don't know what you're worried about," he chortled. "It's looking beautiful – pristine. Not a spot of rubbish and pure white coral as far as the eye can see."

Pure white, and also stone dead.

Sir Joh Bjelke-Peterson ruled Queensland for twenty years and despite charges of cronyism, corruption and repression of civil liberties he's still revered by many in the state – including the incoming premier, Campbell Newman. Newman and Mayor Tate are two newly appointed political players, both voted in on conservative, pro-development tickets and both ready to shake things up in Queensland.

A cruise ship terminal at Tugun? It may sound crazy, but like blasting holes through the Barrier Reef or using nuclear weapons on it don't discount anything these bastards say.

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