Editorial: Why this power pair can’t both be Labor’s future

If Steven Miles is positioning himself as the next Labor leader with Shannon Fentiman his deputy, he must face an inconvenient truth, writes the editor.

There is still no active move on to roll Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Instead, what we are witnessing is the three most likely candidates for the top two jobs jostling for position – should Ms Palaszczuk sniff the wind and decide to step aside, or if the union heavyweights who wield the real power tell her she must.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles is the leader of the Left in the caucus, the faction with the highest number of MPs. He is, as a result, currently considered the most likely to be the next leader of the party.

The minister that most observers are now talking about emerging as his deputy is Shannon Fentiman, the media-friendly and energetic Health Minister (and former well-performed attorney-general).

But there is a serious problem with that assumption, and that is that the longstanding convention in Labor is that the Left and Right factions share the top two jobs – meaning Treasurer Cameron Dick would, by that rule, emerge as Mr Miles’s deputy leader because he is from the Right faction (that Ms Palaszczuk is also a member of).

Mr Miles knows this convention. Of course, he does. But speculation that Ms Fentiman would be a great deputy suits his narrative.

Acting Premier Steven Miles and Health Minister Shannon Fentiman on Monday. Picture: Scott Powick/NCA NewsWire

That is due to an inconvenient truth for Miles – that it would be almost impossible for the party that believes so seriously in quotas to replace a female leader with two men in both the top two jobs.

And with Mr Dick the Right’s clear frontrunner, the only way that plays out is for the Left to choose Ms Fentiman over Mr Miles.

Mr Dick knows that convention too, of course, which explains why he, without being commissioned, has today contributed to The Courier-Mail his blueprint for how Labor can win next year’s election.

That is Mr Dick’s way of sending a message to the party that he is still interested in the leadership, should it become vacant. And, unlike Mr Miles, the Treasurer has two out of the three possible outcomes in his favour – to emerge as leader if the union powerbrokers who call the shots do not think Ms Fentiman is ready for the top job, or as deputy via the faction-sharing convention.

It was no coincidence his missive was submitted to us just five hours after ministers Miles and Fentiman sang each other’s praises for the cameras early yesterday.

Treasurer Cameron Dick in Question Time last week. Picture: Glenn Campbell/NCA NewsWire

But is Ms Palaszczuk actually in any trouble? Is all this jostling just academic? Well, so far it is.

There remains a sense within the party that Ms Palaszczuk is still its best chance of re-election, despite the repeated stumbles of the past few months.

There is a respect for her ability – as a three-time winner – to pull a rabbit out of the hat when it comes to the campaign itself.

As Mr Miles conceded yesterday: “Every single time, at this stage of the electoral cycle, people have said there’s no way we could win and we have gone on to win.”

But there is no doubt there is little love for Ms Palaszczuk’s internal leadership style, and all of the speculation over the weekend acted as an overdue pressure valve for those frustrated insiders who have been bottling up their concerns.

It was telling that one Labor insider was quoted yesterday by a seriously experienced journalist – the veteran of many leadership battles – as saying of Ms Palaszczuk that “everybody hates her”.

While it is seriously unfair personally to Ms Palaszczuk that the insider was not prepared to put their name to such a sledge, the fact that these things are being said to journalists is a sign of the frustrations that have now bubbled to the surface.

Where this all ends is anybody’s guess. But the three most probable scenarios right now are these: Ms Palaszczuk decides to voluntarily step aside (unlikely), she is dumped by the party (and that would have to happen by Christmas), or she leads Labor to a loss on October 26 next year. We live in interesting times.

CHANCE TO SAVE COMM GAMES

It seems you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s (almost) gone.

When Victorian Premier Dan Andrews made the shock decision to abandon that state’s hosting of the 2026 Commonwealth Games last month, he assumed few would mourn an event that was looking a bit tired and old fashioned (except for the Brilliant Gold Coast event in 2018).

However, thankfully, the rest of Australia hasn’t been as keen as Mr Andrews to see the beloved event die. Mayor Tom Tate has put his hand up for the Gold Coast again, Perth has shown interest and mining magnate Gina Rinehart wants to support athletes to realise their Commonwealth Games dream.

And yesterday, that sentiment saw a change of tack from federal Sports Minister Anika Wells, who opened the door – in a letter to Mr Tate – to supporting the Gold Coast bid if the state government also got on board.

With the federal government’s conditional support, a Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast is no longer something Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk can dismiss out of hand. While we may be focused on Brisbane 2032, surely we can at least have a discussion about Gold Coast 2026.