Des Houghton: Jackie Trad a force to reckon with
Political stormtrooper Jackie Trad is likely to be the Premier’s star concern in the upcoming state election battle, writes Des Houghton.
Opinion
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ANNASTACIA Palaszczuk has a problem. Her name is Jacklyn Anne Trad. Trad hovers like a death star over Palaszczuk’s re-election hopes.
The trouble for Palaszczuk and Labor is twofold: If Trad is cleared of wrongdoing by the Crime and Corruption Commission, she would have every right to demand her seat back in Cabinet, even though she is unpopular with voters, especially in communities beyond Brisbane that rely on mining and agriculture for their survival.
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If, on the other hand, there is an adverse finding by the CCC against Trad, Labor’s credibility would be shot.
That would make integrity a central election issue, and Labor already has a shaky record on integrity.
The spotlight would again be turned on the questionable behaviours of several other Cabinet ministers including Transport Minister Mark Bailey, Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath, Training Minister Shannon Fentiman, Health Minister Steven Miles and – and Palaszczuk herself. The most dubious, to my mind, was D’Ath accepting hospitality from Star Entertainment that covered the costs of a Labor fundraiser for her at its Brisbane casino. In her role as Attorney-General D’Ath regulates gaming. According to D’Ath, she did not choose the venue.
Equally worrying was the use of a dodgy poll by Miles to justify trashing the name of Lady Cilento at the children’s hospital.
In the background there is another integrity crisis involving taxpayer monies awarded to a firm partly owned by Palaszczuk’s former chief-of-staff David Barbagallo. Fortress Capstone Pty Ltd won an Advance Queensland Business Development Fund investment worth $267,000.
Barbagallo, like Trad, says there is no impropriety.
The trouble with Trad is she just can’t stop talking. For journalists, she is the gift that keeps on giving.
When she appeared on multimedia man Peter Gleeson’s Sky News show she made it clear she had unfinished business.
Her appearance on Sky wedged the Premier who would not rule out that Trad may return to Cabinet.
However, Palaszczuk churlishly dismissed the idea as a hypothetical – even though everything politicians say in an election is regarded as a hypothetical by voters.
Gleeson’s scoop infuriated most Labor chiefs who had hoped Trad would stay quiet in the lead-up to the election.
However, the 48-year-old Lourdes Hill Catholic girls’ college and Griffith University graduate is a political street fighter. She has no intention of going quietly, as she demonstrated on Sky.
She seeks to rehabilitate her image especially with Labor followers who remain suspicious of her motives.
Trad and controversy are old pals. In that regard she is the antithesis of Palaszczuk who is risk-averse and seems anaemic by comparison.
Palaszczuk’s credibility was hit just as much as Trad’s when she failed to act in an integrity scandal revealed by The Courier-Mail over a property purchase.
The $700,000 house was located in a part of the electorate where values stood to benefit from the $5.4b Cross River Rail connection, a project for which Trad was responsible. Later, Trad apologised to Parliament.
It was all an honest mistake, she said. In its assessment, the CCC said it found no “reasonable” evidence of corruption or dishonesty on Trad’s part.
However, the CCC recommended that a failure by a minister to declare a conflict of interest should become a criminal offence carrying up to two years’ jail.
Trad was in the news again when those “Trad Laws” were introduced, but in a weakened form that did not please CCC chief Alan MacSporran.
On Gleeso, Trad stuck to the script, blithely dismissing allegations against her as a paper work error. Now Trad must do it all again.
She stood aside then resigned from Cabinet after learning the CCC was investigating claims she interfered with the recruitment of the principal at the Inner City South State Secondary College. Parliament heard a woman named Tracey Cook was the original choice.
However, the Education Department director-general Tony Cook (no relation) issued a statement confirming that Trad met the highest ranked candidate, presumably Tracey Cook, for an “informal discussion” lasting about 15 minutes in Trad’s office.
The job was subsequently readvertised and went to another applicant, Kirsten Ferdinands. Why?
Trad will be hoping she is cleared before the election.
She has been described as “ruthless” and “arrogant” and usually gets her way.
If cleared to return to Cabinet, will she again be Deputy Premier and Treasurer? These are questions Palaszczuk must answer before the poll.
The voters deserve to know.
MINER A MAJOR WIN FOR WETLAND
NOW that she is jumping in front of the television cameras again, I hope Jackie Trad finds time to applaud the conservation efforts of Adani mining.
And I hope the taxpayer-funded Threatened Species Recovery Hub run from the University of Queensland likewise congratulates Adani.
Adani chief Lucas Dow this week sealed a deal to set aside 30,000ha conservation zone near its central Queensland mine.
You will remember that Trad tried to block the Adani project at every turn. She even helped wreck Bill Shorten’s bid for the lodge by suggesting coal miners be retrained.
The new Adani conservation area called Moray Downs West will protect and enhance the habitat of the black-throated finch and other species of reptile, plants and birds.
The vulnerable finch is at the mercy of packs of feral cats that feast on the birds while wild pigs destroy its habitat.
The finch is also threatened by lack of water, and the loss of its seed grass food to weeds.
I’m told the provision of water and pest eradication will be paramount in the new conservation area, with the save the finch plan carried out by indigenous groups.
The new conservation area is the size of 30,000 football fields. I can’t wait to see the congratulatory press release from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch.
FACELESS AND TALENTLESS MEN
FIRST Kevin Rudd blamed the media. Now he’s blaming the Faceless Men for his political downfall.
In a radio interview in Sydney to mark the 10th anniversary of his downfall, the former PM told Ben Fordham:
“You’re right about five or six Faceless Men, by which we mean heads of the unelected factions of the party got together and decided they wanted to change the Prime Minister, a Prime Minister in my case democratically elected by the Australian people.
“And as you remember, Ben, you were around at the time, everyone woke up the next morning to discover that the Prime Ministership of the country had changed. That was because of the power of the Faceless Men. They come from factions. Factions exist in the Liberal Party as well. They are unelected. I think they are a cancer on democracy.
They need to be rooted out of both parties.”
I agree. However political alliances or blocs or cliques representing sectional interests have been around forever, and it’s rather naive of Kevin07 to think that will change.
Rudd also said the Faceless Men were faceless because “they are usually talentless individuals”. Agreed.
He wants factions banned.
“If you remove factions, guess what, you remove the incentive for powerbrokers to accumulate their power by things like branch-stacking.”
He also attacked his old adversary Wayne Swan, now party president, for having a party to celebrate Rudd’s exit. Kevin07 thought that was “genuinely bizarre”. Agreed.