Wayne Goss’ 1995 election truth promise fell ‘between the cracks’

Amid the controversial Brisbane-Gold Coast toll road proposal, Goss’s team has also been criticized for making promises in policy areas where he was seen to have done little in his previous two terms.

This mood meant Labor lost nine seats and the two parties’ preferred support reached just 46.7 per cent. But Ken Davies’s 16-vote win in Mundingburra gave Goss the smallest majority.

Historian Dr. was commissioned by the Crisafulli government to prepare a background report and highlights from the documents. That feeling continues after election day, Jessica Stroja said.

“1995 state elections [cabinet] Stroja said at an embargoed media event last month that he had taken into account criticism from many protest groups about his election promises.

Attorney General Deb Frecklington called the details in the documents fascinating.

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“This gives us a great insight into the issues of the day that the cabinet is discussing and trying to resolve these issues as quickly as possible after the election,” he said.

Among Goss’s promises was that his ministers would spend their first 100 days in office making plans for how they could deliver on those promises.

Goss noted in a presentation in late October that by the end of that period, about 40 percent of the roughly 268 commitments set by the cabinet were on track.

Some entries on this list included major passenger rail extensions promised to Maroochydore, Coolangatta and Toowoomba, as well as a rail link to Brisbane airport.

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The documents say some of the promises, including a series of promises about support for victims of crime, lacked a public media strategy to publicize the progress of those promises.

Others were said to still fall completely “between the cracks.”

A briefing document for Goss highlighted just one of these categories: the truth about political advertising laws raised by Borbidge in the election debate and matched by the prime minister.

As detailed in the document, “no process has been set by the cabinet for its implementation” and the lack of action was also picked up by the media.

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After the issue was brought to the agenda at the federal level, the issue was referred to the parliamentary commission. No such legislation has been introduced by the Queensland government since then.

Goss said it was important that the commitments, many of which were repackaged from the pre-election budget and other policy documents, were enacted as quickly as possible to demonstrate the government’s “active performance”.

“Effective media and communications strategies will play an important role in influencing public perception of the government’s performance,” he wrote.

In addition to the midterm update on the progress of ministers’ election promises, cabinet members were asked to provide a further update in May 1996. They never had a chance.

On 8 December the Disputed Returns Tribunal ordered a by-election in Mundingburra after finding that 22 military personnel were denied the chance to vote.

Liberal Frank Tanti won the next poll on 3 February 1996, leaving both Labor and the coalition with 44 seats in parliament.

This gave independent Liz Cunningham the chance to back Borbidge as the new prime minister of the minority coalition government. He took it and the Goss era was over.

But it will be another 12 months before Queenslanders can see how this plays out at the cabinet table.