Jeers and rancour mark halfway point in Qld’s parliamentary term

The arc of this parliamentary term in Queensland has passed the halfway mark.

In two years, voters will decide who guides parliament through its next four years. And if it’s anything like Wednesday, there’s going to be plenty of rancour.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles wrangles his newly sworn-in cabinet colleagues for a selfie at Government House after the 2020 election.Credit: Matt Dennien

In one of the rowdiest sitting days this year, parliament erupted into several yelling matches.

At one point during question time, Speaker Curtis Pitt was forced to stop proceedings and warn both sides about the volume hitting a point where MPs could not even hear him telling them off.

The argy-bargy followed the first federal Labor budget since the Palaszczuk government came to power in 2015.

Never has the premier had a friend like Anthony Albanese in Canberra – a point Annastacia Palaszczuk and her ministers hammered home while deriding a “decade of rorting, waste and pork-barrelling” under the Coalition.

But the state LNP opposition was quick to question whether Albanese was in fact their friend, given that funding for Queensland’s Hells Gate dam project had evaporated and amid the lack of a new health funding agreement that state and territories are unlikely to stop pushing for.

Logan-born and raised Jim Chalmers has labelled his first budget as federal treasurer a responsible one. The Palaszczuk government echoed this sentiment, saying one economic document can’t undo the work of past governments, or address global pressures such as the war in Ukraine.

Chalmers will have two more future budgets to win over his Queensland constituents and help Palaszczuk do the same before the next state poll, by which time she will be Queensland’s longest-serving Labor premier since World War II and the federal party will be gearing up for another election itself.

The budget acknowledges there is hard work and dark clouds ahead. Chalmers has suggested there are talks to be had around taxes. Energy prices and inflation are headwinds that are also unlikely to ease in the coming year.

Earlier this month, Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman offered a critique of the state opposition’s track record this term, in which it has delivered no bills to parliament (compared to nine between the Greens and Katter’s Australian Party, and eight under former LNP leader Deb Frecklington).

With the make-up of MPs all but dooming non-government bills to the bin, the opposition’s actions suggest it’s directing resources elsewhere.

An almost sole focus is the state’s health system, which, like all others nationwide, is facing pressure from population, strained funding and workforce shortages. A complex area with a real-world effect on people’s lives, it is ripe for political attack by any opposition.

Queensland is no exception. Under leader David Crisafulli, the LNP has now held more than 26 “health crisis town halls” to hear residents’ often-harrowing stories.

This week it emerged women who had lost a baby were still being treated in maternity wards at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, despite suggestions by Health Minister Yvette D’Ath in November that the measure was only temporary. This sparked new, repeated LNP calls for her sacking.

After a pandemic-plagued start to the parliamentary term, the opposition had also gathered steam highlighting integrity issues within the government, until they were called out by the state’s corruption watchdog.

Australia’s major election study has shown declining political trust over the past decade. Many, including former Labor premier Peter Beattie, have suggested major parties take note of the message sent by a surge of support for candidates positioning themselves beyond the usual political fray.

Sitting above the MPs being handed warnings amid Wednesday’s shouting bouts were two groups of school students – primary and secondary – on field trips.

Some of those older students will cast their first ballots in October 2024. Time will tell how and why they, and others, may want to influence the course of government.

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