Opposition‘s recovery road map exposes Palaszczuk’s internally dysfunctional, divided government

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington deserves some credit for producing her own “Roadmap to Recovery” as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her government stumble about in dysfunction and division.

KNOCKING up a recovery road map is a far easier task from the sanctuary of Opposition than it is from Government.

For a start, you will never need to actually implement the plan. And second, you don’t need to take into account all that pesky “health advice” that gets in the way of operating in the real world.

That being said, Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington deserves some credit for producing her own “Roadmap to Recovery” for getting our state’s economy and the daily lives this state’s five million residents back to normal – if only because it shows Queenslanders what a real road map may look like.

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Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is under pressure to release a coronavirus recovery road map for Queensland’s businesses. Picture: Attila Csaszar

As we have been saying in this column, it is vital for shutdown businesses to know well in advance when and how they will be allowed to begin operations so they can hit the ground running.

A recovery road map is an indispensable cog in the process of getting people back to work and avoiding the cost of the coronavirus pandemic increasing exponentially because of red tape and unnecessary delays.

We are yet to see a road map from the Government, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk saying it would be presumptuous to release one ahead of deliberations on the matter at tomorrow’s National Cabinet meeting.

Fair enough. But it sure doesn’t appear that the Government’s focus is as laser-like on the current once-in-a-century crisis as the Premier would have us believe, given the revelations about the high-stakes game of factional bed swapping that’s been going on behind the scenes in her caucus this week.

After a less than illustrious political career thus far, Ipswich West MP Jim Madden has chosen a rather inauspicious time to make a name for himself by ditching Ms Palaszczuk’s Right faction to join Deputy Premier Jackie Trad’s Left faction.

Mr Madden has insisted the move was done in the interests of his electorate. It is curious that he believes Labor factional allegiances influence taxpayer funding.

However, regardless of whether Mr Madden’s move is about preservation or promotion, it smacks of self-interest. It is downright shoddy that someone elected to see to the needs of their community would be pondering such a move in the current climate.

While Left and Right faction acolytes might be blaming each other for Mr Madden’s defection, the fact is that all the senior figures of the Palaszczuk Government should have been able to put their animosities aside and come to the unanimous conclusion that this was a dumb idea.

And the Premier cannot simply get stroppy about the move and dismiss it as a factional game below her station.

Not for the first time, damaging factional machinations have occurred under her watch, whereas other Labor premiers – like Peter Beattie, Anna Bligh and Wayne Goss – used their leadership to limit the influence of these groups.

The Left, in particular, should be called out because it could have rejected Mr Madden, rendering the issue a non-event.

But as ever, Labor’s dominant faction – with an approach to politics perhaps better suited to reality television – saw an opportunity to lift its numbers and further its ideological crusade and took it, regardless of the implications for the Government.

Modern Queensland has never had a government as internally divided and dysfunctional as this lot. Sadly, that’s just the truth.