CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Queenslanders won’t even be able to find a news story about the controversial NRL bunker decision that potentially robbed the Redcliffe Dolphins from a finals appearance over the weekend. Because it’s not the type of scandal that can be blamed on the state government.
While Queensland’s only statewide newspaper is commonly referred to as the ‘Broncos Newsletter’ – it also has a reputation for acting as the unofficial media arm for the LNP.
And that’s why nobody will be reading any news about the betrayal of the Dolphins, or the LNP’s plans to slash the mining royalties tax the moment they get elected.
There’s also very little reporting on the LNP’s plans to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, or the soaring rates of gendered violence, or the log-jammed Olympics preparations. Let alone the countless examples of blatant environmental vandalism being perpetrated daily by the tax-dodging multination fossil fuels corporations that are now furious at being asked to pay Queenslanders a percentage of the untaxed moeny they make from pillaging up tonnes of minerals from our state.
But, there is a youth crime problem.
In fact, if your news intake is limited to the Courier Mail – you’d be forgiven for thinking that’s the only problem our rural communities are dealing with.
After nearly a decade under the dictatorship of Palaszczuk, the only news stories that get any air time are directly related to the punishment of at-risk teenagers – who are, more often than not, black or brown.
While there is no denying that the state’s rural communities and suburbs are currently in the midst of a youth crime wave that was caused by pandemic lockdowns that forced young people to spend two years locked inside unstable households with people they’d rather avoid by going to school, it is not yet certain if either political party have any long-term solutions to this problem outside of just building more prisons to turn naughty boys into ice-riddled monsters.
It’s for this reason that the the powers that be have demanded no more real journalism from Courier Mail’s last remaining journalists who have not yet been replaced by syndicated NewsCorp hacks based out of Melbourne and Sydney.
They’ve been told to focus on youth crime. And if they can’t find any, dig up some old stories. Worse case scenario, just make some shit up. Because things have never been this bad when it comes to youth crime. Make sure to ask the Opposition Leader for a quote.
