Peter Gleeson: Premier’s worst two weeks in charge about to get even worse
The well-oiled machine known as the Palaszczuk Government is coming off its worst two weeks since being elected in 2015, and it’s not likely to get any better, writes Peter Gleeson.
Peter Gleeson
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The well-oiled machine known as the Palaszczuk Government is coming off its worst two weeks since being elected in 2015.
And it’s not likely to get any better with a summer of discontent looming over public restrictions staying because of low vaccination rates, union drama over Cross River Rail, business over a lack of government support and the tourism industry remaining in crisis.
Poor health decisions, sloppy and hypocritical quarantine responses and an inability to understand that people have had enough of the government’s silly propaganda is starting to hit home.
The reason we know it is hurting their polling numbers is because Labor’s own research tells them so and the weekly focus groups have been critical of the double standards and lack of empathy and compassion on quarantine protocols.
It explains a rare public apology last week from Ms Palaszczuk over the double standards shown when Queensland Health gave a special quarantine exemption to a planeload of 100 wives and girlfriends of NRL players, while stopping “normal’’ Queenslanders from entering the state.
It explains why Ms Palaszczuk was “heartbroken’’ over stories of little kids being estranged from their parents for weeks on end, or how a very sick four-month-old baby couldn’t quarantine at his parents’ rural home, when it was obviously much safer than a hospital.
It explains why the government went ballistic when their double standards were exposed after they’d failed to approve an application for hotel quarantine for our Diggers stuck in Dubai.
It explains why the government is clueless on truckies entering Queensland from known Sydney hot spots, and yet the indigenous can’t get an approval to travel 40km for a family funeral.
Instead of revelling in the great news that the NRL grand final was coming to Brisbane for the first time ever, the government was fending off claims it was favouring WAGS over Diggers.
And therein lies the problem for this Labor Government. It has been exposed as heartless and incompetent and it doesn’t like that unfamiliar territory.
When that happens, it either blames Canberra or the media, or both. But the jig is up. Queenslanders are livid at the way Queensland Health has botched the hotel quarantine exemptions and the hardline stance on the border closures.
They have nowhere to hide. The best bet for Ms Palaszczuk right now is a Cabinet reshuffle, a good old-fashioned reset.
She has that opportunity with a new, separate Ministry to manage the Olympics, with Sports Minister Stirling Hinchliffe the best bet. He knows the bid well and is a genuinely hard worker.
There’s even speculation that Ms Palaszczuk herself may take the Olympics portfolio. That would provide the opportunity for broader changes.
Deputy premier Steven Miles did a reasonable job in health, although he, like current Minister Yvette D ‘Ath, was a captive of the senior bureaucrats.
Miles remains in State Development and being a member of the Left faction, which has the numbers, he remains the most likely to replace Ms Palaszczuk, if and when she goes.
There are some senior mandarins pushing for Miles to take Treasury at some point, to give him the fiscal experience required to take over the top job. The suggestion is that current Treasurer Cameron Dick would go back to health, a portfolio he knows well, a steady hand during the pandemic crisis.
Dick hurt his leadership prospects when he criticised the Brisbane City Council over plans to turn a West End site into the broadcasting hub.
Labor insiders say Dick is not as supportive of the 2032 Olympics as the premier might hope, which is a shame considering she put so much hard work into winning the bid.
Ms Palaszczuk will likely use any reshuffle to freshen her Cabinet and purge the deadwood. As they say, a change is as good as a holiday.
