Ex-Member for Blair Cameron Thompson on guilt trip

The ex-Member for the seat of Blair - based on the provincial City of Ipswich - has embarked on a massive guilt trip over his stunning election loss.

Seventy-two hours after his well-deserved defeat, Cameron Thompson has finally emerged from his cubby-hole, blaming everyone but himself for being booted out by the perspicacious people of Blair.

Cameron Thompson has the hide to say that he was not defeated by local issues in the campaign and has the temerity to suggest that the electors of Blair were somehow duped after being overshadowed by national issues.

This ex-ABC rural radio reporter just doesn't get it.

Can't he see that WorkChoices was a real local issue for many locals in Blair?

Can't he see that his one-man opposition to upgrading the Ipswich Motorway Motorway affected 100,000 drivers a day - many of whom were from his electorate?

Can't he see by continuing to ignore important local issues in Blair such as health and education, he would be judged on judgment day?

Can't he see that his continuing brawling with the local Ipswich City Council had put him on the path to certain political destruction?

The people of Ipswich have traditionally shown great loyalty to their local sitting member. Bill Hayden was the only ALP Member in Queensland to survive the massive anti-Labor swing against Gough Whitlam in 1975 because he was a tremendous local member.

When Pauline Hanson won the seat of Oxley in 1996 against the ALP's under-performing Les Scott, she was booted out 2 years later for not looking after the locals and concentrating on her dream of a totalitarian Australian regime under her dictatorship.

Cameron Thompson should stop taking swipes at all an sundry, blaming them for his defeat last Saturday.

Had he stuck to genuinely representing local people, he could still be the Member for Blair.

But this ex-politician who idolises Bob Menzies, supports the Queen of England as the Head of State for Australia and who dreams of the conservative parties one day ruling in perpetuity across the Commonwealth and the eight states and territories, should go back to his cubby-hole and contemplate what might have been, had he been prepared to work for the good of the local people of Blair rather than playing partisan political games for the past 9 years.

Now, he will have plenty of time on his hands to go back to Central Queensland for the ABC, along with his trusty tape recorder and do something important in his life such as reporting on the state of the dunnies in downtown Longreach!

Jim Lloyd - Another happy Coalition loss!

The man who tried to foist the Goodna Bypass proposal on the people of Ipswich, the Federal Roads Minister Jim Lloyd has lost his own New South Wales seat of Robertson in the Federal election with a 7.5% swing against him.

Jim Lloyd would not listen to the people of Ipswich. He would not take a bi-partisan approach to an important local issue in southeast Queensland.

All he could do was to listen to his political mate Cameron Thompson, the Member for Blair who dreamt up the hare-brained Goodna Bypass plan, after all of the public consultation on the Ipswich Motorway upgrade had been completed in 2002.

Five years later, all the people have left are the hollow promises of the Liberal Party but - on the positive side - the political carcasses of Jim Lloyd and Cameron Thompson!

The voters of Blair and Oxley have spoken in unmistakable terms.

The new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the local Federal Member for Oxley, Bernie Ripoll will now formally unveil their commitment to 6-laneing the 6km stretch of the Ipswich Motorway from Goodna to Dinmore.

And the people of Ipswich will be proud for the first time to have a first-class Motorway linking Ipswich with Brisbane.

Frenchman tops Australian political honours

The only Frenchman ever to enter the Australian Parliament has done it again.

Labor's Bernie Ripoll - in the Ipswich-based seat of Oxley - has trounced his opponents with a 7.4% swing.

On the overnight count, Bernie Ripoll secured 40,331 votes to the Liberals 21,668, followed by the Greens and a particularly poor performance by Family First.

Oxley is the seat won by Bill Hayden in 1961 for the Labor Party and, for a short time from 1996 to 1998, by One Nation's Pauline Hanson.

Bernie Ripoll has now turned Oxley into a Labor stronghold with 64.5% of the vote, a margin built up by hard work and understanding his community.

The 5-year old little boy from France who landed in Australia 36 years ago - unable to speak a word of English - has been remarkably impressive as one of our nation's rising political stars.