Heads up Queensland voters - you can really make a difference on Saturday. Here's how...

First a quick history refresher.

Independent Queensland MP
Peter Wellington

Queensland has only had a single house parliament since the ALP abolished the Upper House in 1922. So ever since then, any party holding a majority of seats got to run a rubber-stamp government for the entire term. Every single vote a foregone conclusion.

Imagine what that gives you...Oh that's right you don't have to imagine - you had Joh Bjelke Petersen! And Russ Hinze. And the Fitzgerald Inquiry...

Back in 1998, when I was a Councillor with the former Maroochy Shire Council, the guy who sat next to me in the Chamber was Peter Wellington. Wello decided to stand as an Independent against entrenched Liberal-National Party (he'd been both) incumbent Neil Turner. (As an aside, I had previously owned a computer store next door to Neil Turner's electorate office - can't remember more than a couple of words from him in four years...)

Queensland's Sustainable Housing Declaration a poor solution

The Queensland Government has brought out a checklist that will be required of anyone looking to sell their home.

A checklist? Whoopy chook. There have been far better tools developed that the Qld Gov't could be using. The Sustainable Housing Code that was being drafted by Brisbane City Council's greenhouse team (on which I played a small part) on behalf of all the SEQROC councils was to provide a score for each key aspect of a house's makeup. The overall score would provide a better snapshot of the house, and even out aspects that the individual layout or orientation and environmental factors may not allow.

However, I also have little regard for the REIQ's Jean Hamer complaining about the cost of the scheme - no surprise there. There has been a constant stream of doomsaying from the development industry for decades. I recall attending a presentation by the so called "Environmental Advisor" of the HIA to their members in the late 1990s, in which he decried the absurd impost by the proposed Maroochy Plan 2000 that would require a minimum 3.5 star rating, and would force builders into the unnecessary measure of putting ceiling insulation into every new home they built.