Congratulations to the Crisafulli Government for winning our inaugural Super Silly Sausage Awards.
And the State Government should seriously savour the taste of its Silly Sausage victory, especially given the tough competition it has had in Australia this week.
I mean we have had the irony of neo-nazis attacking Aborigines after an after anti-immigration rally, former Victorian premier Dan Andrews allowing himself to be treated as a political puppet at a military parade in China, and Brisbane Broncos star Reece Walsh posting on social media images of himself drinking toilet water.
All were serious contenders to take out the award until Deputy premier Jarrod Bleijie uttered the phrase, “We will not build light rail stage four”.
After that, you could have announced you were riding naked to the moon on an elephant, and you still would not have even come close to winning.
Of all the stupid, short-sighted, vote-pandering decisions to appeal to NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard) that you could dream up, this one has to be one of the greatest in history.
I mean, let’s invest $4.5 billion to build a tram line that prematurely ejaculates passengers at Burleigh Heads and leaves them waiting for an airport bus, which may never come.
Yes, the light rail is far from a perfect solution for a city that stretches 27km along the coast from Coolangatta to Southport.
Yes, light rail is challenging and expensive.
Yes, a lot of people in the southern Gold Coast oppose it.
But with the completion of Stage 3 in sight, the light rail is only 13km away from Coolangatta or more than two-thirds of the way to completion.
And yet, the State Government has decided that it will simply follow the Labor Party icon Clem Jones’ historical howler in turning their backs on light rail.
For those not in the know, Brisbane once had an extensive network of tram lines that rivalled the Melbourne network, but in 1969 the Clem Jones-led Brisbane City Council decided to scrap the trams in favour of freeways, expressways and buses.
This decision is now viewed as a short-sighted policy that contributed to increased traffic congestion and air pollution in Brisbane.
And yet the Queensland Government is headed down the same path.
Mind you, the decision will provide a legacy for the Crissafulli Government for many years to come. The Sunshine Coast has the Big Pineapple, Bowen has the Big Mango and Coffs Harbour has the Big Banana.
So, courtesy of the State Government, the Gold Coast light rail will soon be known as the Big White Elephant.