Editorial: Premier, Queensland needs a new treasurer now

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk needs to salvage what she can from this self-made shambles – not for her, but for the people of Queensland.

QUEENSLAND is in the grip of the greatest crisis in living memory, and through a combination of political cowardice and self-interest the State Government has lurched into an entirely avoidable political crisis right when it should be solely focused on steering the economy, saving jobs and ensuring a second wave of COVID-19 does not flare up.

Treasurer Jackie Trad yesterday stood aside from her ministerial position while the Crime and Corruption Commission investigates claims she meddled in the appointment of a school principal in her electorate.

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At a time when Queensland needs clear and concerted economic action to bounce back from COVID-19 and its job-slaying slowdown, the Government is now without a treasurer.

While the trouble-prone Ms Trad is at the epicentre of this debacle, the ultimate author is Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

In September, Ms Palaszczuk should have displayed the judgment and spine to sack Ms Trad when the CCC found she had broken ministerial rules by not declaring her family company had bought a home close to her own infrastructure project, the $5.4 billion Cross River Rail.

The extraordinary scandal sparked law changes to make it illegal for ministers to fail to declare conflicts of interest in Cabinet, or fail to keep their register of interests up to date.

Whether through bottling to the factions, lack of political courage or something else, instead of sacking her, Ms Palaszczuk let the Left powerbroker from South Brisbane retain the state’s second-most important job. Now, as hundreds of thousands of Queenslanders watch their livelihoods either evaporate or be left hanging by a thread amid the COVID-19 slowdown, the state has the Premier stepping in as part-time treasurer – juggling the two most demanding jobs in government – while the watchdog investigates.

It is everyday Queenslanders, not Annastacia Palaszczuk, who will pay the highest price if her Government fumbles its response to coronavirus.

It’s not as though the Palaszczuk Government had overseen wonders in the Queensland economy even in calmer times.

Indeed, on Ms Palaszczuk and Ms Trad’s watch Queensland is labouring under horrendous (and growing) government-sector debt, a bloated and growing public service wages bill, and sluggish employment, with no clear plan to get the state’s economy moving with crucial private-sector jobs.

Allegations of meddling in the selection process for a school principal throw a further stench around the Government which has now had integrity crises mar both its terms in power.

However, the Premier has chosen to stick by the two senior ministers who have separately been engulfed in scandal, in Trad and Mark Bailey – members of the dominant Left faction. In doing so, she also owns any further damage they inflict on the Government.

Ms Palaszczuk needs to salvage what she can from this self-made shambles.

Not for her, but for the people of Queensland.

That means finally muscling up and sacking Ms Trad and getting the best candidate from Cabinet immediately into the role.

It is too important to dither now.

It’s too important to wait on Ms Trad’s fate at the hands of the CCC.

Livelihoods depend on it.