Move over Nanny State, parental responsibility is back. That's the headline message from 723 Queenslanders we interviewed in an online qualitative survey about backyard drowning and politics.

It is a message that has implications for Bligh and Springborg in this election year.

Frequently political decisions are made on the basis of the Yes Minister syllogism of "here is a problem, something must be done about it, this is something, therefore it must be done".

Our respondents don't buy that logic.

Just before Christmas the Bligh government floated the idea of 4-yearly, or even annual, inspections of pool fencing.

Our respondents disagree, whether they supported the government or opposition, were male or female, young or old, or owned a pool or not.

Out of a list of solutions, annual inspections were ranked second last and four-yearly inspections last by 60 and 72 percent. Highest ranked were educating parents (66 percent) and subsidising toddlers’ swimming lessons (46 percent).

This is not surprising. 78% believe that parents rather than pool owners bear the higher responsibility.

They see the government's role as marginal, and backyard drownings as an important, but intractable problem, to which there is no perfect solution.

In an era where governments declare war on every chronic problem this research carries an important message. The public doesn't believe many of these programs are any more than public relations.

The political questions in our survey reveal the danger of this approach.

Six months ago we uncovered dissatisfaction with the Bligh government not evident in quantitative polls.

Apart from the length of time Labor has been in government the big issues were to do with infrastructure - water and roads - and health.

These were the reasons for the dissatisfaction.

In this poll the infrastructure issues are much less significant, and Labor gets the credit for fixing a number of them, yet Bligh's net dissatisfaction has slightly increased.

There are two possible explanations. The first goes right back to issues like backyard swimming pools.

While problems are being addressed, Queenslanders think that the only reason they are being addressed is to give the government another media opportunity. They refer to this as "spin".

The second is that the economy didn't rank as an issue in the middle of last year, but now it ranks above roads, and is strongly linked to concerns about the future.

It is as though our respondents are determined to disapprove of Anna Bligh, no matter what she does. Good performance will be discounted as spin, and circumstances beyond her control will be blamed on her.

This might be good news for the Opposition, except they have similar perception problems. Springborg's net approval has increased a little, partly because of a real achievement in forming the Liberal National Party. That is where it stops.

The biggest problem Springborg has is he is perceived to have no policies.

Voters want to know what the LNP stands for, and while Springborg has been in Parliament for almost 20 years, they still want to know more about him too. Without that knowledge everything he says is spin too.

Which must make it difficult for the Premier in deciding when to hold the next election.

With early election speculation rife, 37 percent of our respondents said they would be less likely to vote for the government if an election was held in February or March.

But if the economy is only going to get worse, and everything you do is seen as just a media stunt, maybe this is as good as it gets, particularly as your opposition is still vulnerable to the same criticism.

Could be time to dive in.

First published in The Courier Mail on January 21, 2009

Share this article on your favourite social bookmarking sites: