Editorial: What Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk can learn from Peter Beattie

As the state’s leader, Peter Beattie had something that is too often missing from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s approach to her job, writes The Editor.

Peter Beattie became premier of Queensland exactly 25 years ago today, long enough in the past to provide some perspective on his contribution to the state.

Where to rank him among the state’s leaders, past and present, will depend on your personal views and political preferences.

But it is safe to say Mr Beattie was one of the greatest salespeople ever to have held the top job probably anywhere in Australia – endlessly and successfully selling himself to voters and winning four elections in a row, leading the state for more than nine years.

Mr Beattie brought to the job a winning mix of high intelligence, political rat cunning, a ringmaster’s razzamatazz, a disarming high-voltage grin, and a willingness to deliver a shameless but usually effective mea culpa (and an apparently heartfelt pledge to fix the problem) when things got sticky.

He was a self-described media tart who thrived in the limelight, so much so that, according to an old joke, Mr Beattie as premier would have happily driven through a red light just to get his picture taken – or even jump into a tankful of sharks, which he once actually did.

But there was always more to Mr Beattie’s leadership than distractions and self-promotion.

He was also relentless in successfully selling a vision for the state’s future.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Peter Beattie. Picture: Nigel Hallett

When Mr Beattie launched his government’s Smart State strategy in 1998 to expand Queensland’s economy beyond farming, mining and tourism, there were plenty of sceptics who saw it as little more than a slogan to slap on number plates.

But fast-forward a quarter of a century and it has proved to be a strategy that has delivered.

Today, Queensland’s economy is far more knowledge-based than it was even a decade ago.

It has become a globally recognised centre of biomedical innovation, with institutions such as the Queensland Bioscience Precinct (which houses experts from the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience), the Queensland Brain Institute at UQ and the Institute for Health and Biomedical Innovation at the Queensland University of Technology.

US president Barack Obama recognised Queensland’s emerging excellence in medical sciences during the G20 Summit in Brisbane in 2014, when he said: “Your innovations have transformed how we treat disease and how we unlock new discoveries.”

Peter Beattie and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: Nigel Hallett

As for Mr Beattie’s own view of his legacy, we invite you to turn to his own words published today in The Courier-Mail.

But we will extract just one short quote of relevance here: “The greatest honour a citizen in a democracy can receive is to be elected to parliament to represent their fellow citizens in developing policies and then implementing them for the benefit of the whole community. Good policy leads to good government.”

The Palaszczuk government tried to rebottle Mr Beattie’s Smart State magic when it came to office, unexpectedly, in 2015, with its similarly focused Advance Queensland strategy.

But despite the hundreds of millions of dollars poured into various Advance Queensland schemes over the past eight years, and a number of undoubted successes, the government has failed to get the sort of public recognition Mr Beattie achieved for his Smart State strategy.

Perhaps over time that might come. But for now we would argue its muted comparative success is in part because Mr Beattie had something that is too often missing from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s approach to her job – a clear and committed vision for the future, underpinned by good policy.

LABOR KEEN TO SELL ITS PRO-MINING POLICY

Federal Labor has a long way to go before it can win back support of the mining lobby, after years of demonising coal mining for the role it plays in global warming.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, realising the importance of rural Queensland in the next federal election, has been cautious with his words about the future of coal and gas, assuring the industry that exports will continue even as Australia chases net zero.

And today his Resources Minister Madeleine King will – in a speech to the World Mining Congress – link mining to clean energy.

Ms King will say the “road to net zero runs through Australia’s resources sector”, but that more needs to be done to help Australians understand the role it will play.

“More mining is required to meet this urgent demand for clean energy technologies,” Ms King will say.

Queensland is well placed to benefit, with our reserves of vanadium expected to play a part in emerging battery technology.

It’s a message federal Labor will be keen to sell – with state Labor now at war with the resources sector over their coal royalties hike.