Analysis: Palaszczuk Government caught napping between crises

The Premier’s pandemic popularity is petering out and voters are now as bored of her as they were of hearing about Covid, writes Jessica Marszalek.

It was with sharpened polling pencils that an angry populace ejected the past two Queensland governments.

The Palaszczuk Government may instead be swept from George Street on the crest of a collective yawn.

The Premier’s pandemic popularity has petered out and voters are now as bored of her as they were of hearing about Covid.

This poll is seriously bad news for an eight-year-old administration struggling for fresh ideas.

Come October 2024, the Palaszczuk Government should be reaping the rewards of its economic and social agenda after Queensland’s first four-year, set term, free of the politicking linked with election date speculation.

But there was always the risk such a long term would further expose the threadbare agenda it took to the polls in 2020.

Certainly the Government has made some history-making, legacy reforms in its eight-plus years in power on domestic violence, voluntary assisted dying and the decriminalisation of abortion.

Annastacia Palaszczuk herself fronted the state’s successful bid for Brisbane’s 2032 Olympics and Paralympics that should transform the southeast.

But on the issues Queenslanders today say are most important to them – cost of living, housing, youth crime and health – it has been slow, patchy and, at times, incompetent in its responses.

Rather than expend political capital on brave reforms or proactively get ahead of issues, it has lurched from crisis to crisis, too often choosing political expediency over the hard work of real solutions.

These moves may remove bad news from front pages for a time but won’t impress Queenslanders if the problems remain when they’re lining up to vote.

In fact, it will worry Labor strategists no end that on every key issue they trust Crisafulli and the LNP over Palaszczuk and her team to fix them.

Labor has long pegged its fortunes to the popularity of the Premier.

They’ve employed a team of slick spin doctors to pump her up on social media and built a political fandom around her.

POLL RESULTS

• REVEALED:The No. 1 issue Queenslanders most concerned about
• SLAMMED:Shocking lack of faith in state’s health system
• EDITOR’S VIEW: Trusted poll must be a wake-up call

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has work to do ahead of the next election. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA Newswire

Her teflon coating has weathered even self-inflicted damage and there’s been light and day through the years between her popularity and that of her LNP challenger.

Even when Labor’s vote capitulated in the dark days of the pandemic, people still loved her.

Today, Palaszczuk posts her worst result as better premier since scoring the job.

Only 31 per cent chose her over David Crisafulli – sliding from 46 per cent just over a year ago.

Twenty-nine per cent think Crisafulli would be the better leader.

The last time a premier saw a result this tight was in 2014 in the months before Queenslanders turfed out Campbell Newman to give Palaszczuk a go.

And there is pessimism not recorded since early 2020, and, before that, never in polling records that stretch back to 2011. Just 31 per cent of people now think the state is heading in the right direction.

Certainly, many believe Palaszczuk would not have won last time if she had not been able to leverage her popularity and safety messaging off the back of the fear and insecurity of the Covid pandemic.

Like last time, the government is in real trouble in regional seats where people are less than excited about how much the government’s spending on the Brisbane Olympics.

They’ll likely be up against it in inner-city McConnell and Cooper if voters there follow the federal election playbook and back Greens candidates.

Of course, people have written Palaszczuk off at their peril in the past before she’s smote whichever LNP rabble she’s been up against.

Crisafulli has so far avoided the division and navel gazing that plagued his predecessors.

Indeed he’s managed to reform party rules, promised a more diverse team of challengers to shake up his own team of mostly tired, old, white men and overseen the earliest roll out of candidates ever in key marginals, all of them female.

Twenty-nine per cent of Queenslanders think Opposition Leader David Crisafulli would be the better premier. Picture: NCANewswire/Glenn Campbell

He’s been disciplined in sticking to his political scripts on health and youth justice (although has yet to offer many meaningful solutions) and he’s desperately trying to make cost-of-living a state government problem, like when he argues that rising crime is pushing up insurance premiums.

But Labor will have tricks up its sleeve and could leverage some of the extra mining royalties it has collected for cost-of-living sugar hits for the electorate.

It may be one of the few panaceas Palaszczuk has left after her Covid comedown.