Cate not ready to forgive and forget

Peter Gardiner | 17th November 2009

Traveston Crossing dam scuttled Cate Molloy’s political career and now it looks like taking out one of her enemies – premier Anna Bligh.

The $1.8 billion dam is now dead and speculation mounted over the weekend of a Labor challenge to Ms Bligh in the new year with cabinet newcomer Cameron Dick the heir apparent.

And it may come as no surprise to many that the former Labor member for Noosa has not only called for Ms Bligh’s political head in a basket, but her old seat back with a heartfelt apology.

Or, if not the seat, at least the endorsement at the next state election of a party that kicked her out over her breaking ranks over support for the dam.

Of course the sitting LNP member Glen Elmes may be in no hurry to vacate it, and it would take a political shift of earthquake-sized proportions before Labor would agree to her request to be “exonerated” and welcomed back into the fold.

But Ms Molloy is not about to die wondering if she can come in out of the political cold that at the moment looks a lot like Austria, where she is visiting old friends.

“As I have been totally vindicated by the federal ALP, Anna Bligh and all members of the Queensland ALP should issue me with a public apology for what they did to me and my family,” said Ms Molloy, who is on an extended European vacation.

“As I was disendorsed by Bligh and (former premier Peter) Beattie for opposing the dam and my position is now federally supported, I believe I should be publicly exonerated by the federal and state ALP,” she said.

“Further my disendorsement should be overturned, and I should be reinstated as the endorsed candidate for the state seat of Noosa, should I ever return to politics,” she said.

And not one to turn the other cheek, Ms Molloy wants Mr Beattie also hauled over hot coals.

She stops short of demanding the state trade commissioner be dragged back from the United States in chains and publicly flogged.

“Peter Beattie should not be allowed to escape accountability for this fiasco. He should be immediately sacked from his job as Queensland trade commissioner in the US and his salary donated to the people of the Mary Valley.”