DOWN, BUT NOT OUT IN THE SOMERSET SHIRE

SAT 14TH JANUARY   The Premier of Queensland was in town - Anna Bligh, Member for South Brisbane and Minister for Reconstruction: Apron on, well practiced in the art of cooking sausages at the gas BBQ's and speaking with strangers - no not completely - because we are from Queensland!


The old Esk, now Somerset Shire Councillors, their wives and Fernvale citizens who were part of the State's first anniversary of the devastating floods were "Back Together".
State MP for Ipswich West, Wayne Wendt, Mayor Graham Lehmann and Shayne Neumann, Federal MP Blair with their indefatigable presence on the lawn of Fernvale Futures (information and meeting place),

at the planting of  AN INDIGENOUS HOOP PINE

(Araucaria cunninghamii).

I sat on the bench, self-contained.  I've been withdrawn from community contact lately due to a slide into bi-polar depression. I had gathered the skant energy and motivation I had for community functioning. It wouldn't surprise me if residents who had been traumatised by the flooding of their houses would be feeling forlorn  a year on, especially if so much of what they valued had been washed away - strength and assets sapped.

THROUGH THE WINDOW THEN

 Our neighbour's Dairy. 

 ADAMS RD SIGN 

FERNVALE RD Black Snake Creek Jan 2011

We were fortunate to have found an old Queenslander home, high-set on a hill so when the deluge came we were dry. We couldn't go anywhere as the water around cut us off for three days. There was no electricity so I used it as an exercise, imagining what it was like living in the nineteenth century - when the malnourished Irish were enticed here,  to found a future for their children on our Fairney View selection.


Very glad it was only for 3 days! I had faith in the energy company to get the service up and running again as soon as possible. Our drinking water is pumped from the tank so we had only stored a certain amount. We stayed close to the battery operated radio. Our predicament was negligible, but we all have our limits before our sanity snaps.

A year later, sitting on the park bench, it occurred to me, this might be the last time Anna Bligh would be Premier, or even be a figure in Queensland politics if the Opposition had their triumphal election win in the near future.

My inner physician messages me to slightly increase the dose of anti-depressant to allow my brain a more realistic perception! Bligh was as bold and sassy as Boudicca - she had a bloody good chance of forming government again. 

Knowledge was power and she had it in spades! I'd seen Anna Bligh at the State Library at a public forum on Education and Training. Years of experience behind her, she was comfortable discussing and providing information on everything that was presented to her by the many professionals in the room.

Still, I would ask my State MP for a photo opportunity with both of them as I have been the local Wivenhoe - ALP branch secretary for a couple of years and didn't have any photographic evidence - except for recording others posterity...

The seasonal rain was holding off  for the community gathering. The Somerset is a conservative farming area and most of the Labor votes come from populous Ipswich. The Premier's presence was appreciated by all - but will they vote for Team Bligh at the anticipated State election now the other lot have a new leader?


People weren't thinking about this though - they were holding it together - being gentle with each other.
I know how  important compassionate support is to get you through crisis to recovery, and I am always impressed by the abilities of our M.P's to empathise with constituents and try to make the struggles in life seem a little bit easier, even better when they have the resources to do something practical.

Local Butchers would be doing alright around the State with a sausage led recovery... I couldn't stomach a sausage but I did get the photo opportunity. 

Comrades for Progress via the Australian Labor Party, Anna Bligh, Julie McNeill, Wayne Wendt

Fernvale January 14th 2012

Anna Bligh - Premier and Minister for Reconstruction - Member for South Brisbane 2012.

Previously, Deputy Premier and Treasurer.Minister for the Arts. 

Minister for Infrastructure, Finance, State Development, Trade and Innovation.

Education Minister for five years overseeing many reforms.
National President-Australian Labor Party

SUN  15TH JAN  FERNVALE MARKETS 6-12

As a local said to me the next Sunday morning at the weekly Fernvale Markets - Queensland Labor had their time (20 years) so it's time to break the cycle. Of course I don't agree. 


The overall guiding philosophy of a political party does have a profound generational effect, especially with Education, and creating jobs with infrastructure.


As I set up the ALP stall my thoughts were of  the time we came to work in Queensland primary schools with our curriculum based, environmental puppet shows. We found bedraggled state school facilities, but worse, no separate arts and science specialisation - let alone decent libraries. I talk about the institutional censorship of our work here, as Australian Puppeteers.


Premier Joh and his cronies may have built sparkling new towers and enabled a defining cultural and trade Expo( but at a cost to Heritage buildings bulldosed in the middle of the night). The dark ages of  Conservative rule with the underlying old time religion of  Joh Bjelke Petersen( who went out of power with a lingering smell of a culture of corruption), has meant the Labor governments had a lot to catch up in comparison to the other Australian states.

In 2001 I couldn't even send my daughters to the local high school because they didn't cater for pathways into Science, Maths, Chemistry, Physics or Asian languages for University entrance.
It was a great shift in cost and ideology to send them to a private school which catered for scholars, farmers and tradies.
I wasn't happy having to front up to the Principle and beg for a bursary.


Here in the Brisbane Valley there has been strong resistance to pricing carbon pollution, and respecting the scientists findings on climate change and its consequences. 
The local Somerset free newspaper encourages a weekly dose of unhealthy skepticism and misinformation.
My instinct tells me that the Patricians of power in the "Pineapple State" kept the Plebeians blissful with a Belief in a Creator  but unable to understand the evidence of  the science that has created the world we live in.


What I fear the most though is a Lib/NatParty dominated by fundamentalist Christians, setting its narrow agenda on our children who have to compete in a global village.
Now that schools have been fitted out with new Science labs, libraries and halls(thanks to the economic stimulus of the Rudd Labor government), and a National Curriculum(via a Gillard led goverment),  the LNP want Creationism given equal value to Evolution, and the CEO who got the Chaplains in State Schools is hoping he is elected in by the voters of  the Everton electorate in Brisbane - my guess, to end up as Queensland's Education Minister.


" Scripture Union Queensland is absolutely intent on providing youth hope, direction and purpose which can only come from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Each S.U. Queensland program is a vehicle for local churches to use to reach a young generation". Tim Mander


So, the little influence I had at this years Ipswich Regional Conference was to move a motion: That this Regional Conference calls for an amendment to be made to the Education Policy in the Party Platform to state that: "a state secular education requires scientific learning and enquiry, and matters of faith are a parental choice in after-school hours." 


Whilst there may be teachers who can't help but try and sabotage the principle of church and state, science and theology in the classroom we must be informed as to the lines between the physical and the imaginative realms of our minds...


As someone who has experienced spiritual highs and agonies, and takes lithium for it(thank you Dr. Cade), I'm one with the insightful nineteenth century intelligence of  Karl Marx who saw that religion was the opium of the masses.

Having a Relationship with a fine Australian illustrator and poet, Michael Leunig.
.The Michael Leunig Website

THE SHADE COVER IS UP, THE RED TABLE-CLOTH IS SPREAD AND THE FACTS OF ALP ACHIEVEMENTS ARE ON THE TABLE.


My political anxieties are interrupted by the curiosity of market goers whose  attention is caught by an enlarged diagram  - they have been waiting for over 20years for something to be done about the intersection at Blacksoil on the Warrego Highway!


Relieved that Wayne has arrived to explain the new fly-over infrastructure taking place - Now, really happening thanks to the efforts of Federal MP Shayne Neumann finalising a deal of over $50million for the Federal responsibility, and Wayne bringing the State Government to contribute $20million - we will have a safer, efficient road system to carry the increased populace.


Nobody is whinging about this Labor achievement and the money spent. This is really Good News for this Sunday morning!

Encore at Fernvale Markets, Brisbane Valley Highway - Sunday 29th January, 6am-12. WEATHER PERMITTING!


P.S. I can't resist adding this 'Horrible Histories" song about Boudicca, for a mood lifting laugh!