Ben's Blog

June ’25

The Queensland state election has further increased the country/city divide. It looks like the Labor Party could end up without a single seat outside Brisbane. Quite extraordinary for a party formed under a gum tree in Barkkaldine. While the lack of support for the LNP in the city has not hindered them from winning government, this is unlikely to be repeated in other states. A big win in outback Queensland does not necessarily translate to the LNP sweeping the nation. Queensland has more regional and rural voters than other states, and most of them are a long way from their capital city, tucked away in the very south east corner.

Meanwhile further south, the labor party has continued its domination of our national capital. By the next election they will have been in power for 27 years, making them the 4^th longest serving government in Australia’s history, and on track to break the record in 12 years time. (No.1-Labor Tasmania 1934 – 1968) Labor have been in a very stable coalition with the greens for the last four years. That amicable arrangement should continue for at least another four. The A.C.T. is far and away the most educated place in the country, and I imagine Canberra residents with their ear-to-the-ground have a far better understanding of the machinations of power than the rest of us. (do they know something about the Liberals that we don’t?) When we look at the permanent marginalization of the Liberals in the A.C.T, are we looking at a picture of the whole country some time down the track?

All around the country, Australians are gradually becoming more educated and more aware of what is going on around them, some more than others. City folks seem to be growing more savvy at a faster rate than country folks, with some exceptions. In the city people tend to come across others of different political persuasions, with a broad range of interests and concerns, ideas and opinions. For obvious reasons, this is less the case in the country. It is said that we live in the information age, but news outlets are closing down all over the country, often leaving only the Murdoch press or no press at all out in the bush. Increasingly, country folks must rely on the internet for news of the outside world. While there are excellent sources of information on the web, many people deliberately choose not to avail themselves of them, preferring to stick to the sites that mirror their parochial views. This phenomena is creating a gap between the better informed and the willfully ignorant, and in that gap animosity and conflict tend to fester, as the ignorant can get quite angry and frustrated with their lack of understanding WTF is going on.

The voice referendum is a good example. After much robust debate  the vote was pretty evenly split in the big cities, while in the country the discussion was reduced to six words, ‘If you don’t know, vote no!’ Well they didn’t know, because they didn’t want to know, so they voted no.

I have taken a squizz at the results of the recent Federal election in 2025. I discovered, to my shock and horror, that the Liberal party has become a country party by default, with very few members representing city electorates. Of a total of 43 coalition members in the house of representatives, just 8 are from the major cities: Sydney 4, Brisbane 2, Melbourne 2, Perth 0, Adelaide 0, Hobart 0, Canberra 0, the other 36 are from the country, 16 of them from rural Queensland. There are twice as many members from rural and regional Queensland than from all our major cities combined. 80% of Coalition members are country members. 36% are from rural Queensland, and 18% are from the city. The Coalition should really call themselves The Queensland Country Party. It is rural Queensland that has been holding back the country for many years. Thank God we can now ignore them.

Further reading...Fear & the Liberal Party