Opinion: Annastacia Palaszczuk may not recover from worst week ever

Annastacia Palaszczuk’s credibility has been shot to pieces and Labor may already be looking for a replacement, writes Des Houghton. VOTE IN OUR POLL

This has been the worst week for Annastacia Palaszczuk in her 15 years in public office.

Her credibility has been shot to pieces. She may never recover.

The Premier’s dismal performance begs the question: Can she survive?

I wouldn’t be surprised if her union masters are not already looking for her replacement.

The Premier was haughty, hypocritical, unsympathetic, fearmongering and secretive.

And she was spinning like a whirling dervish.

Palaszczuk was unduly parochial and blundered badly when she banished Queenslanders from returning home from interstate while secretly welcoming the wives and partners of sportsmen and women from interstate and overseas. The media read her as a phony.

Palaszczuk made it worse attempting a partial backflip while attempting to change the narrative by saying she was only trying to protect children.

Then along came Memphis Francis, 3, whose ropeable parents revealed on the front page of The Courier-Mail their boy was barred from returning Queensland after a visit to his grandparents in NSW.

The more Palaszczuk attempted to pivot, the deeper she sank into the political quicksand.

Worse, still she tried to shift blame to Jeannette Young the Chief Health Officer.

The Premier’s declaration that she will “stay strong” on border closures until all children are fully vaccinated goes against medical advice and global experience.

And she has wedged federal Labor and leader Anthony Albanese who supports Scott Morrison’s national recovery plan. And let’s be honest. While the pandemic is destroying small business, we remain the Lucky Country.

The pandemic’s health impacts have been mild.

Deutsche Bank reports that while Covid cases in Australia have surged recently, they remain a mere fraction of the numbers being recorded overseas.

“The US and UK are 10 times higher adjusting for population and most of continental Europe is at least three times higher,” the bank says.

And there is good news, although it does not suit Palaszczuk’s game plan.

A swift acceleration in vaccinations means 62 per cent of our most vulnerable are now double-vaxxed and the hospitalisation rate is lower compared to those overseas.

Sco-Mo is right. With careful planning to protect the vulnerable, it is possible to open up society and the economy. We still have a good story to tell.

But Palaszczuk didn’t want to hear it.

Des Houghton is an independent media consultant and former editor of The Courier-Mail, Sunday Mail and Sunday Sun