After five years in power Annastacia Palaszczuk’s shine is rubbing off

Her opponents have always underestimated her, but five years on from making history Annastacia Palaszczuk appears to be finally running low on luck, Steven Wardill writes.

FIVE years ago today, Annastacia Palaszczuk took a trip from her city office to Government House in Paddington to be sworn in as the 39th Premier of Queensland.

The daughter of Labor veteran Henry, who had been an MP for less than six years before her meteoric rise, chalked up a number of historic firsts by the time Governor Paul de Jersey completed the formalities.

Chief among them was becoming the first women in Australian history to lead a major political party from the wilderness of opposition into high office.

However, this achievement was largely overlooked amid the shock and drama of the 2015 election outcome which saw a sitting premier with the biggest electoral buffer ever seen in the state not just ousted from power but from his seat.

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The extraordinary fortnight of uncertainty that followed the January 31 election is but a footnote now.

So is the fact that just a few hundred ballot papers marked differently in the Brisbane seat of Ferny Grove might have produced a different result.

It was Palaszczuk’s “sliding doors” moment and every one of them opened in her favour.

Yet five years on, Palaszczuk is on the precipice of another tough fight with a state election locked and loaded for October 31.

History beckons again if she wins.

Cartoon by Brett Lethbridge.

The four-year term that follows, the first in the state’s history, will see her leapfrog the likes of Wayne Goss and Peter Beattie to become the fourth longest serving premier since Queensland became a state.

That would be an epic achievement for someone repeatedly written off as an accident and whose Government was imperilled from the get-go when the exposure of newly-elected Cook MP Billy Gordon’s criminal past forced Palaszczuk to eject him from her minority administration.

However, while there’s still 261 days left before the election, it appears Palaszczuk will require a repeat of her good fortune in 2012 to again write herself in the record book.

The Courier-Mail’s latest YouGov poll has exposed the gaping hole that’s been punched in Palaszczuk’s popularity over the past year.

The percentage of Queenslanders satisfied with her performance and who rank her as preferred premier is the lowest achieved by an incumbent for at least the last decade.

From those halcyon times early in her premiership when these numbers both nudged a healthy 60 per cent, the figures have been clavered in half over time with a gradual leak in support turning into a torrent over the past 12 months.

And that broadly reflects the Palaszczuk Government’s five years in power.

Unlike other administrations in Queensland’s recent past, there’s been no pervading issue that galvanised voters against the Government.

There’s been no financial crisis, health crisis, infrastructure crisis, water crisis or electricity crisis.

Nor has there been the explosive upheaval on multiple fronts seen during the Newman government’s brief tenure.

Instead it’s been a steady-as-she goes, risk-averse approach peppered with significant social reforms and that was enough for Queenslanders to reward Palaszczuk with a second term in 2017.

There are some observers and critics who believe Palaszczuk’s great schtick has been to lower expectations to the point that she can never disappoint while failing to achieve anything.

But that fails to recognise the finetuned detector Palaszczuk has for finding political gold and her willingness to champion popular causes unrestrained by arguments about fiscal responsibility.

Think the new Townsville Stadium, the pursuit of a homegrown movie industry and the “Buy Queensland” procurement policy that allows local contractors and supplies to charge taxpayers’ more.

Economic hardheads would shudder at all of these but each taps into the great want of voters to have politicians who act parochially and in their interests.

However, last year the bubble burst.

The Government found itself amid a maelstrom of issues where there was no sanctuary from having to make tough decisions.

First, the Adani coal mine saga reached a crescendo during the Federal election after the Government’s shenanigans over the threatened black-throated finch perverted the process and angered regional voters.

Premier Anastasia Palaszczuk and deputy premier Jackie Trad

Palaszczuk was embarrassed into forcing a deadline for a decision, all but confirming her administration had been playing silly buggers with the approval.

This was quickly followed by the integrity crisis that engulfed Deputy Premier Jackie Trad over her failure to properly disclose and declare her family’s purchase of property near the Cross River Rail project.

The issue was omnipresent for months and Palaszczuk’s failure to act against her deputy continues to make her look weak.

Another matter that must also be thrown into the mix is the $1250 bonus to public servants who sign up to wage agreements of 2.5 per cent.

Amid a private-sector environment of stagnant wages, high unemployment, low inflation and tax hikes, the decision seemed grossly out of touch even though the cost was relatively inconsequential to a $65 billion state budget.

Whatever the reason, something is afoot with voter sentiment in Queensland.

The number of voters convinced the state was heading in the wrong direction surpassed the number who believed the course was correct in The Courier-Mail’s YouGov poll in August.

The gap widened further this month.

It’s significant because the only other time that this has happened over the many years this question has been asked was during the 12 month period before the Bligh government was dumped from office.

There’s ample time left for the Premier to mount a recovery and her opponents have always underestimated her.

But five years on from making history, Palaszczuk appears to be finally running low on luck.

Former LNP MP Jason Costigan is battling to stay in Parliament after the next election. Picture: Alix Sweeney

COSTO NEEDS TO HEED OWN ADVICE

STATE Parliament’s one-man band, Jason “Costo” Costigan, had some sage advice for me last week when I ran into him one evening.

“Pull your head in,” the ousted former LNP not-so-subtly suggested as I exited the Parliament precinct. But maybe it’s high time for Costo to heed his own advice given the clap trap he’s been banging on about lately.

The self-appointed leader of self-created political party was whining again this week about all the tunnels and bridges being built in Brisbane at north Queensland’s expense.

What rot. Costo’s gripe was over a plan for five new green bridges for cyclists, pedestrians and public transport. The fact these bridges have been proposed by the Brisbane City Council, not the State Government, doesn’t matter to old mate Costo. It was just another example of how he and his ilk like to peddle falsehoods to the people of north Queensland for rank political gain.

He doesn’t like to hear how per capita infrastructure spending by the State will be $2155 this financial year compared to the regional figure of $3692.

It’s much easier for Costo to whine than work and feed off a falsehood in the hope it will help him remain on the public’s payroll after the state election. There are legitimate economic issues in the north that need addressing. But these issues would get more attention if the region wasn’t represented by an opportunist who can’t tell the difference between a bridge and a tunnel.