ALP challenged in Woodridge by-election
By Jim McIlroy
BRISBANE — Peter Beattie's Labor government is in danger of losing the outer suburban seat of Woodridge, traditionally one of Labor's safest, to an ex-ALP independent local councillor, Russell Lutton, in the state by-election on February 5. Labor appears to be in a stronger position in the other by-election to be held that day, in the Ipswich-based seat of Bundamba.
A Courier-Mail poll conducted a week before the by-elections shows three-quarters of Woodridge voters believe that former parliamentarian Bill D'Arcy's $660,000 superannuation payout should be frozen, pending the outcome of his trial on 49 child sex charges.
Labor's candidate for Woodridge, former ALP state secretary Mike Kaiser, dropped his "democratic" mask to reveal the arrogance of power when he warned that cabinet ministers wouldn't "even pick up the phone" to talk to Lutton as an independent.
"The survival of the Labor government is in the balance in these by-elections and we favor the return of ALP candidates as the lesser of two evils", Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) Brisbane organiser Graham Matthews told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly. The problem of the unreliability of independents is shown by the fact that Russell Lutton is directing his preferences to the Liberals before Labor in Woodridge.
"The DSP supports a first preference protest vote to the Free Marijuana Party candidate Nigel Freemarijuana in Woodridge, with preferences to the ALP. In Bundamba, we support a first vote to the Greens candidate, Sean Curley, with preferences to Labor."
The DSP is urging progressive people to put the former One Nation split-off candidates of the City-Country Alliance last on their ballot papers in both seats. "Whatever the result of the by-elections, however, the only way to get gains for the people is through mass struggle around the main issues facing us", Matthews said.