On the Brisbane City Council election

The recent Brisbane City Council election result reminds me of Sally-Anne Atkinson’s win in 1988, although I think that Sally-Anne did slightly better.

In 1988, Sally-Anne received about 2/3 of the vote, and the Liberal Party won 17 of the 26 wards.  The Labor Party won 9 wards: essentially it’s then-stronger wards of Deagon, Eagle Farm (similar to Northgate), Spring Hill (covering a large part of the existing Central), Paddington, The Gabba, Doboy, Wynnum-Manly, Inala and Enoggera. 

Problems in the financial markets

Where will the problems in the financial markets stop?  What will be their impacts? Will there be recessions, or even depressions?  Are the problems in the financial markets an example of what can happen when entities don’t trust each other – if so, is this a graphic example of the importance of trust between entities in non-command economies?

update and Brisbane City Council election

It’s been a while since I updated my blog – I’ve been dealing with 2011 Residents’ Association matters and work has been very busy.

As an ex-Brisbanite (and my parents and sister still live there), I take a residual interest in what’s happening in Brisbane. Campbell Newman’s election win as Lord Mayor yesterday was emphatic – 2/3 of the vote is very strong, and unsurprisingly (with such a large vote) the Liberals won a majority of the wards.  The election result reminded me of Sallyanne Atkinson’s win in 1988, although the 1988 win was stronger. No doubt the Labor campaign should take a good hard look at itself.  From afar, it looked as if the Labor Councillors in Brisbane didn’t properly assimilated the defeat of their Lord Mayoral candidate in 2004 and did a lot of whingeing for a few years.  Different times now call for a different approach. 

Interestingly, Labor councillors have controlled the Brisbane City Council for at least 35 years with the exception of the six years (1985-1991) when Sallyanne Atkinson was Lord Mayor and now the Liberals will again control it for at least four years.

The stories in the press about the Brisbane result indicating a revivial of Liberal fortunes are a bit over the top – there isn’t much relationship between Brisbane City Council elections and state or national politics.