Annastacia Palaszczuk risks legacy by putting politics before public health

If authors, actors and athletes are only as good as their latest book, role and game, then a government is only as competent as its most recent term. If voters agree, the Palaszczuk government could be in trouble in 2024, writes Paul Williams.

They say authors, actors and athletes are only as good as their latest book, role and game.

I’d go further and say a government is only as competent as its most recent term.

And if the past few months are any measure, then 2022 will mark out the Palaszczuk government as one whose best days appeared to be behind it.

If Labor is defeated in 2024, it won’t just be because of recent integrity issues. It will also be from what appears to be a change in style now seen in the government’s current weak-kneed response to the state’s third and deadliest Covid-19 wave.

After so prudently navigating the state through the first wave – and being rightly rewarded for strong leadership with an increased majority at the 2020 state election – the Palaszczuk government has now dropped the pandemic ball.

It’s a far cry from 2015.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk during budget estimates this week. Picture: Liam Kidston

Indeed, if you trace the trajectory of the government over the past 7½ years you can identify three distinct styles across three distinct terms. Washing into office in 2015 on a wave of goodwill after the combative Newman years, Labor’s first term matched its minority status.

The Premier was humble and her cabinet endearingly nervous. After some stumbles, the government found its feet and got on with the job.

Labor’s second term – this time in a majority – saw the Palaszczuk government at its best. Confident, determined and focused, the government righted old wrongs (abortion law, tree-clearing legislation and infrastructure catch-up in the regions) ­before Covid-19 changed the game.

Facing off against angry business figures – and sometimes the federal government – Palaszczuk stood firm against anti-mandate naysayers who demanded open borders and individual freedoms even if it meant lives lost.

But there’s been a distinct change in atmospherics around Labor since January. Rattled by the biggest integrity crisis of its life, the Palaszczuk government appeared to be dragged reluctantly toward public inquiries.

Yet even an integrity crisis can be survived if much of it emerged from outside a leader’s own immediate control. But the buck stops with ­Palaszczuk, and it’s what the government does now to fix that culture that really matters.

Yes, 2022 marks a third phase – one of an administration that appears to strut rather than govern and talk rather than listen.

In appearing overconfident – even cocky and uncaring – it’s beginning to look like a ministry that puts politics before good public policy.

The Premier’s petulance at budget estimates this week is a case in point.

This new and unappealing style is also found in the government’s reluctance to do its core Covid-19 job.

After foolishly allowing the third game of the State of Origin to go ahead on July 13 – we can draw a straight line between a 53,000-strong crowd and a spike in Omicron cases a week later – Palaszczuk is also allowing the Ekka to proceed with 400,000 visitors expected to mix cheek by jowl.

Worse still, the government, against the advice of most senior medicos, still refuses to mandate the wearing of masks.

The great irony is that, in 2020, when the government stood firm and protected Queenslanders’ health, ­Palaszczuk was accused of playing politics when she clearly was not.

Now, out of what can be only guessed as a fear of rebuke from footy fans, Ekka aficionados and anti-mandate mobs – whose votes Labor needs in 2024 – the Premier has lost her nerve.

By January 1 this year, Queensland had recorded fewer than 14,000 cases and just seven deaths. As of this week, the state has recorded 1.46 million cases and almost 1500 deaths, with more than 1100 hospitalised. Our buckling health system simply cannot cope with additional emergencies, let alone much-needed elective surgery.

Queenslanders will not remember 2022 for its footy or its Ekka.

Instead, they will remember how, in the spurious name of freedom, their government allowed the spread of a dangerous disease.

As American president and civil libertarian Thomas Jefferson said: “The first duty of government is the protection of life, not its destruction. Abandon that, and you have abandoned all.”

Dr Paul Williams is an Associate Professor at Griffith University, Nathan campus.