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April 28th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda A month after being almost obliterated at the state level, the Labor Party has been dealt yet another blow at the Brisbane City Council election.
Liberal National Party (LNP) Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has claimed a resounding victory over Labor’s Ray Smith after picking up almost 70 per cent of the two-candidate preferred vote with about 30 per cent counted.
The LNP is also expected to pick up at least Labor’s Central, Doboy and Karawatha wards to increase its councillor numbers to 18 and reduce Labor’s to just seven.
LNP defector Nicole Johnston will retain Tennyson ward as an independent to round out the 26-seat council.
Griffith University political analyst Doctor Paul Williams told AAP Mr Quirk was on track to poll even better than Premier Campbell Newman did at the 2008 mayoral election on the back of his party’s landslide win at last month’s state election.
The LNP claimed 78 seats in the 89-seat state parliament, leaving Labor with only seven.
But Dr Williams said it was “appalling” for the party to continue to lose wards at local level after three terms in opposition.
“They’ll be extremely disappointed with the result,” he said.
But in a small ray of hope for the embattled party, Dr Williams said Labor saw a swing in its favour in the predominantly blue collar Richlands ward.
Mr Smith also won a majority of votes in the ward.
“Obviously Labor does have pockets of strength in which to rebuild,” he said.
Mr Quirk said he was “humbled” to be elected in his own right after taking over the position when Mr Newman stood down to contest the state election.
“We had a very united and cohesive team and we put forward a set of very responsible policies which were affordable,” he told reporters in Brisbane.
Mr Smith said he told Mr Quirk to “look after the people of Brisbane”.
“I think he’s been given an enormous amount of faith and I think he needs to back the people of Brisbane,” he told ABC Radio.
The legacy of the former Labor state government may have also killed the careers of local government politicians across the state.
Local Government of Queensland CEO Greg Hallam told AAP on Saturday night there were 35 new mayors, but the number could rise to 45 as votes continued to come in.
Mr Hallam attributed the surge in new faces to mayors copping the brunt for the state government’s decision to amalgamate councils.
“Amalgamations were incredibly difficult and these people did not choose that course of action,” he said.
“I think that they’ve all suffered badly as a consequence of that.”
Some of the new mayors elected included councillor Jenny Hill in Townsville, millionaire businessman Tom Tate on the Gold Coast and former newspaper executive Mark Jamieson on the Sunshine Coast.
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