George Street Beat: Cabinet’s trip north axes Father’s Day for most and Power List ruffles feathers

With the release of The Courier-Mail’s Power List, one top state government mandarin has garnered the nickname “Mr. 66”.

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Courier-Mail’s George Street Beat, a column dedicated to all the spicy titbits that fall out of Queensland’s political palm trees as they sway in the island breeze.

Democracy dads and island getaways

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk hauled her 17 ministers up to the Torres Strait this week, in a trip to that had its fair share of travel kerfuffle and which dialled the “governing for all Queenslanders” rhetoric to 11.

It was a convivial trip that only took the Palaszczuk government cabinet 7.5 years to finally make happen.

Certainly no speed records are at risk of being broken, considering the Newman government managed to get up to the Torres Strait within its short, yet never forgotten, single term while Anna Bligh’s cabinet crossed it off their bucket list 4.5 years into her leadership stint.

The trip north also meant any hopes of celebrating Father’s Day at home with the family were thrown into the wind due to the unforgiving travel roster — unless you’re the Premier.

While the Premier was able to post happy Instagram snaps of Father’s Day lunch with Henry Palaszczuk, Queensland’s 51st most powerful identity, nearly all of the dads in her cabinet had to spend Sunday travelling.

Treasurer Cameron Dick and fellow cabinet dads Stirling Hinchliffe, Mark Ryan, Mark (The Self-Described Farmer’s Friend) Furner, Mick de Brenni and Craig Crawford reached Thursday Island on Sunday, meaning a midmorning flight for those coming in hot from Brisbane.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles and Ministers Glenn Butcher and Scott Stewart made their way to Thursday Island on Monday with the Premier, though it’s understood the regional MPs had also made their way to Cairns on Sunday.

Was there no space on the government plane (aka the Palasjet) you ask? The answer is no, because it was out of operation (again), leaving the Premier to fly commercial for this week’s trip.

High and dry

The Premier’s travel to Thursday Island meant she had to take to the water again, though swapping the superyachts of Hamilton Island Race Week infamy for run-of-the mill boats.

Her VIP status and the unflagging courtesy of communities up north meant she hopped on a council-organised boat from Horn Island on Monday morning, zipping across to Thursday Island quite efficiently.

But while the Premier toured a hospital on the island, a quarter of her cabinet and a handful of bureaucrats were left high and dry waiting for the general population ferry — which eventually chugged its away across at a much more leisurely pace to TI.

Indeed one of those bureaucrats was Mike Kaiser, state development department director general, or as they call him since the release of the Courier-Mail’s Power List — “Mr. 66”.

Mike Kaiser, the director-general of Queensland’s Department of State Development, speaking to the minister Steven Miles during an estimates hearing on July 27 — six weeks before they experienced waiting on a far northern ferry terminal in the sun together.

Power rankings

Speaking of the Courier-Mail’s Queensland Power List, the unveiling of numbers 100 to 51 have caused a flutter in political and business circles.

George Street Beat scribes have been getting a few pings from Queensland identities and their staffers attempting to suss out if they’ve made the list, where they’ve landed in the top 50 (revealed next Thursday) and even how to ensure they’re on it.

Indeed chatter around the list had reached Canberra at least six weeks ago, with powerbrokers busy discussing who would be named top dog.

There will be no embargoes broken by this column, so everyone will have to be patient. Pro-tip, subscribers to the Courier-Mail get first viewing so stay tuned.

Butter fingers

A Freudian finger slip or a bungle by social media foot soldiers?

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has become the latest state MP to chuck a questionable “like” on a Twitter post, following on from her Deputy Steven Miles’ clear slip-up last week.

But unlike Mr Miles’ mistaken slapping of the “like” button, the Premier’s “like” of a Nine News Queensland piece on a wild doorstop of an 18-year-old Gold Coast man outside court remained on her Twitter page as of Wednesday evening.

Shane “marginally less powerful than Peter Dutton” Doherty

It was an absolute cracker of a news package and there are numerous Palaszczuk News Network operatives that have an innate passion for a solid yarn, including recovering journalist Shane Doherty — or as they say these days (after the first 100-51 Power List unveiling) “the man marginally less powerful than Peter Dutton”.

George Street Beat does not suggest any mistaken social media “liking” by Mr Doherty.