Mike O’Connor: Premier’s treaty backflip worthy of the big top

Once again ringmaster Palaszczuk has take to the trapeze and dazzled the audience with a series of perfectly executed backflips, writes Mike O’Connor.

We were spoilt for entertainment last week, with not one but two circuses performing in the River City.

Down Hamilton way, the boys and girls from Cirque du Soleil were going through their paces while up in George Street, the three ring circus under ringmaster Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk had them rolling in the aisles – and it was free.

Successful politicians are artful in saying what they mean but not meaning what they say, so when Ms Palaszczuk saw the referendum results roll in, her sense of self-survival, that most powerful of primal political instincts, kicked in.

Queenslanders voted decisively against the referendum, so any talk of treaty with an election due next October was fraught. The treaty, then, was out the window, but no one had told the other circus clowns like Transport Minister Mark Bailey, who earlier had been happily entertaining the punters by tipping buckets of cold water on Opposition Leader David Crisafulli for dumping his support for a treaty, calling him “weak and unprincipled.”

Ooops! Time for ringmaster Palaszczuk to take to the trapeze and dazzle the audience with a series of perfectly executed backflips while a clutch of clowns rushed to the Big Top and began juggling and performing handstands in a desperate attempt to draw attention away from the political about-face that was being performed on the high wire.

We got it sorted in the end. Ms Palaszczuk didn’t say what it seemed to everyone what she had said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (right) promoting the Voice referendum with fellow ministers Grace Grace (left) and Leeanne Enoch

It was all the media’s fault for misreporting her.

They could always blame Putin and the war in Ukraine, but the media seemed a better bet.

The reality was that Premier Palaszczuk had felt the chill wind of the referendum result on her face and knew that any talk of reparation payments as a result of “truth telling” would be political poison.

As for treaty any reading of the politics, despite the government’s insistence that it still has its full support, would indicate that it is now a very low priority. Ms Palaszczuk said what she said and should have been open about it and made it clear that this was the government’s position. Instead, we got verbal contortions of which Houdini would have been proud.

The punters were having a wonderful time watching the juggling and backflips but there was more to come.

Enter the arena Public Sector Commissioner David Mackie, who tapped his top hat three times with his magic wand and pulled out five days’ paid leave for anyone grieving the outcome of the referendum. What a hoot! The man’s a comic genius. Move over Ricky Gervais. The Public Sector Commissioner has them falling out of their seats.

Alas, it wasn’t a joke. In an email Mr Mackie said the initiative was to ensure government workplaces were kept “psychologically and culturally safe” following the decisive referendum result and that it applied to First Nations people.

Public Sector Commissioner David Mackie

“To help ensure this is realised, employees who are experiencing challenges with their social and emotional wellbeing at this time, such that they feel that they should not attend the workplace, should be supported in accessing appropriate leave entitlements to look after their health and wellbeing,” Mr Mackie wrote.

Had the referendum passed, would five days’ paid leave have been extended to those who had voted against it and were “grieving” over the result? We know the answer.

Mr Mackie may well have been trying to do what he saw as the right thing but people have made it patently clear that they are tired of everything being viewed through the prism of race and descent so it’s paid leave for everyone “grieving” or for no one.

I imagine there are people in the public service who have relatives in Israel. Do they get special grieving leave?

I grieved for my father and then my mother when they died, and managed to do it in my own time, so I would suggest that referendum grievers do the same and get on with the job for which they are being paid.

The starter’s gun has now been fired, signalling the start of the marathon which will end on election eve 2024.

The government has 12 months to demonstrate that it will focus on governing for all Queenslanders and start delivering on housing, transport infrastructure, youth crime, a sane approach to a gradual transition from fossil fuels and abandons its attempts to demonise mining companies.

The circus to which we subjected last week would indicate that it’s got a long way to go.