Annastacia Palaszczuk’s first 100 days leave few achievements to trumpet

IT’S 100 days since Annastacia Palaszczuk was elected to a second term as Queensland premier, but there has been no trumpeting of achievements, writes Trenton Akers.

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UNLIKE her predecessors, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk chose not to outline a dedicated 100-day plan for her second term in power, with the Government slowly warming up following its November election win.

Today marks the 100-day milestone for Palaszczuk, but there has been no trumpeting of post-election achievements to date.

The 2017 election campaign was light on heavy policy reform, instead focusing on Palaszczuk’s “steady as you go” approach and the restoration of public services that has seen her grow in popularity since her shock election win in 2015.

Distracted by the political storm surrounding Minister Mark Bailey and his private email account scandal along with her pursuit of banning developer donations, and children’s cartoon Dora the Explorer, a number of issues have been put on the backburner without a clear plan.

The Commonwealth Games has also taken up a large amount of ministers’ time and attention as it kicks off early next month. But many of these issues will dominate the Palaszczuk Government’s next 100 days and across the rest of her term.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s second first 100 days have been less than wonderful or, for that matter, super. Picture: Darren England/AAP

Debt continues to increase with no public target announced, while the much-spruiked “market-led proposals” plan has had just two of about 50 projects proceed to the construction phase since its beginning.

Queensland Rail continues to falter, with uncertainty over transport for the Games despite the Strachan Report over 12 months ago giving advice on how to fix the embattled operator.

The container deposit scheme, spruiked as a game changer in the recycling industry has been pushed back six months, while the transfer of 17-year-olds in adult prisons has also stalled due to there being more incarcerated than first anticipated.

Significant reform surrounding euthanasia continues to be kept at an arm’s length by the Premier, declaring the issue was not on the Government’s radar this year despite the Labor Party conference last year voting to implement an inquiry followed by legislation to legalise assisted death.

The Gabba has fallen out of favour with Cricket Australia, stripping the venue of its premier event – the first Test match of the summer – replacing it with a second-rate game against Sri Lanka at the back-end of the season.

The Government is yet to publicly commit to any work to restore the venue to its former glory.

Former leaders such as Peter Beattie, Anna Bligh and Campbell Newman have all published aggressive 100-day plans, which outlined their plans and achievements.

Newman said creating a checklist allowed the public to see what the Government had achieved during their first months in power.

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington says the Government has cemented its ‘do nothing’ reputation.

When pressed on what their best achievement was since the election, a government spokesman from the Premier’s office pointed to increased health care and education funding across the state. “The Palaszczuk Government is getting on with the job of delivering for Queenslanders – delivering jobs, delivering education that forms a foundation for the jobs of the future and delivering quality health care for Queenslanders no matter where they live,” he said.

Then Labor premier Peter Beattie issued a day-by-day breakdown of the first 100 days back in power in 1998.

“We were in business from day one to get results and get Queensland moving again,” he said.

Economist Nick Behrens said while the Government announced it would be raising extra revenue during the election, there was no clear commitment on how much of it would be used to pay down debt, instead using it to fund election commitments.

“Both the LNP and Labor were underwhelming in terms of their commitment to pay down debt,” he said.

“They are leaving it to future governments to address the debt problem; they are almost burdening future generations by leaving the problem of how to pay off public-sector debt. What would be reasonable ... is that a portion of that increased revenue is put aside to pay down debt as opposed to being channelled into increased expenditure.”

Transport advocate Robert Dow said there had been a “clear lack of direction” since the election regarding the implementation of the Strachan Report.

“I think there has been stagnation, we haven’t had any real progress at all, they are too focused on the Commonwealth Games to worry about the rest of the network … We are having constant mechanical issues with the ageing train fleet,” he said.

“They’ve done nothing, they’ve just let people suffer, there were some obvious problems they could have fixed.”

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington said the Government did not set plans or benchmarks on purpose to make it harder for Queenslanders to track their progress.

“You’d think with the nation’s worst unemployment rate and state debt heading to $80 billion that Labor would be working 24/7 to turn things around,” she said.

“The Palaszczuk Labor Government didn’t get the name ‘do-nothing’ for no reason.

“The only thing they’ve done in their 100 days is introduce five new taxes.”