Who will act as Treasurer if Jackie Trad steps aside?
If the state’s corruption watchdog orders a probe into Jackie Trad’s controversial inner Brisbane property purchase, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will have to find someone to act as Treasurer. She has only one choice, writes Steven Wardill.
Opinion
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ANNASTACIA Palaszczuk really only has one choice if Jackie Trad is forced to stand aside as Treasurer – appoint herself.
Appointing herself as treasurer would be a move straight out of former premier Peter Beattie’s playbook and a smart decision.
It would send a message to Queenslanders and the Labor caucus that Palaszczuk is in charge and that she expects Trad’s hiatus to be temporary.
There’s still a live question as to whether the Crime and Corruption Commission will investigate this matter at all.
Trad’s failure to declare her purchase of a $700,000 Woolloongabba property properly has exposed her to an investigation by State Parliament’s powerful Ethics Committee.
There are also serious questions for Palaszczuk as to whether Trad breached the Ministerial Handbook rules by participating in Cabinet decisions that may have benefited her as a property owner.
However, nothing has emerged to suggest that Trad acted improperly and the matter belongs in the orbit of Queensland’s corruption watchdog so any probe is likely to be brief.
Some Labor figures have already been jockeying to be Queensland’s temporary treasurer.
The hope is that this will cement their ascension should Trad lose her seat of South Brisbane at next year’s state election.
Right now within upper echelons of Labor’s caucus, it’s like Hunger Games without the arrows.
Palaszczuk’s best bet to suppress the unrest is to stamp her authority as leader and appoint herself as treasurer while handing Trad’s other portfolio areas out to others.
That’s what Beattie would have done.
The difference, of course, is that the wily former premier would made this move already.
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