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!

Cameron Thompson deserved to lose Blair

The outgoing Liberal Member for Blair Cameron Thompson fully deserved to lose his seat in yesterday's election.

This man has treated the people of Blair with absolute and utter contempt and has now been justly punished for his failure to represent the local people.

His own newspaper The Thompson Tribune has thankfully published its final edition.

When local people were hurting over WorkChoices, health, education and a host of other local issues, Cameron Thompson stuck like a political fool to only one issue.

Cameron Thompson turned his re-election bid into a referendum on the dreaded Goodna Bypass as his solution to the problems on the Ipswich Motorway.

And the people of Blair clearly rejected his plan for a $3 billion Bypass, opting to support Labor's proposal for an immediate upgrade of the Ipswich Motorway at a third of the cost.

And what a thumping Cameron Thompson received from the people.

They well and truly gave him his own political bypass.

This ex-rural ABC radio reporter from Central Queensland had a 10.4% swing against him - one of the highest swings against a sitting member in Australia.

His worthy opponent, Labor's Shayne Neumann stuck to his guns throughout the campaign on important local issues, never wavering from his commitments on Workchoices and the Ipswich Motorway in particular.

Over 9 years, Cameron Thompson proved himself a superbly supercilious politician, too-clever by half in his divisive dealings with the people, the press and the Ipswich City Council.

And now that he is gone, a new era of representative democracy has been unveiled in the City of Ipswich.

Cameron Thompson - Gone and soon forgotten!