Annastacia Palaszczuk leaves for holiday in Europe amid leadership speculation
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will jet off to Europe for a two week holiday this afternoon amid swirling speculation over the future of her leadership.
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Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will jet off to Europe for a two week holiday on Saturday afternoon amid swirling speculation over the future of her leadership.
While there is no active move on to oust the Premier, many senior Labor figures are now convinced she should step aside before Christmas for the sake of the party in the wake of successive opinion polls and a series of political mis-steps.
The state government circulated a press release shortly before 2pm confirming the Premier was on leave and will return on September 11 - a day before Parliament resumes.
The Premier’s holiday with partner Dr Reza Adib will leave as Acting Premier Ms Palaszczuk’s most likely successor, her deputy Steven Miles.
Mr Miles is the leader of the dominant Left faction in the Labor caucus and a close ally of party powerbroker Gary “Blocker” Bullock.
He would likely seek to form a leadership ticket with Health Minister Shannon Fentiman as his deputy, a scenario that would need the backing of the swing-vote Old Guard faction that is now allied with Mr Bullock’s United Workers Union.
Treasurer Cameron Dick - who, like Ms Palaszczuk, is a member of the party’s Right faction - could also seek to run should the leadership become vacant, but he would find it challenging to secure sufficient support in either the caucus, the membership or the unions.
More than one source noted that the torrid few days for the government in state parliament last week - which included a series of stumbles over the hot political issue of youth crime - was reminiscent of the way things fell apart in dying months of both the Bligh and Morrison administrations.
But party rules are designed to make it all but impossible for a Labor leader to be knifed outside of the period after an election loss, meaning Ms Palaszczuk would have to agree to step aside - an outcome considered by all to be unlikely.
She is understood to be currently unwilling to even consider a handover before mid-May next year, when she passes Peter Beattie’s record as the state’s longest serving post-war Labor premier.
Her partnership with Dr Adib is also thought to be a reason she will hang on, with the millionaire surgeon’s penchant for attending the red carpet events the premier is invited to seeing her dubbed last year the “red carpet Premier”.
Labor’s focus groups picked up that sentiment, with Ms Palaszczuk - whose political brand is built on her relatability - now notably much less visible at such events this year.
There is meanwhile also a concern among senior party leaders who want a leadership change that any open speculation about Ms Palaszczuk’s future will have the opposite intended effect and prompt her to hunker down.
“If she is backed into a corner she will hold on,” one source said.
Another senior Labor figure said the focus was now on stemming the losses to the LNP at the election, with the hope a minority government could then be formed with the Katter Party, the Greens and Noosa Independent MP Sandy Bolton.
Another source noted that the LNP still has to win nine seats and that while Opposition Leader David Crisafulli is a solid political performer, Queenslanders had not yet warmed to him.
“The test in Queensland when it comes to being premier is if people like you, and I don’t think he’s got that,” that senior Labor source said of Mr Crisafulli.
“But I also do think people have turned off the Premier, and when that happens it’s hard to win them back.”
On Saturday afternoon, Cabinet Minister Mick de Brenni said he “absolutely” supports Ms Palaszczuk remaining as leader who he insists has the backing of rank and file members.
The Energy and Public Works Minister told reporters during a grilling on the party’s leadership the Premier would lead the state Labor team into next year’s Queensland election.
“My full support is behind the Premier and all of our colleagues have full confidence in the Premier and of course she has our ongoing support,” he said.
When asked who he would back to assume the leadership if the Premier resigned this weekend, Mr de Brenni said: “She’s not resigning tomorrow, she’s leading us to the next election. So it’s entirely hypothetical.
“The rank and file have put their support behind this leadership team,” he said.
“I’m very closely connected to our rank and file membership here in the electorate of Springwood.
“They have said they are backing me into this election (and) backing Annastacia Palaszczuk in because they know that the people in this community feel respected, feel taken care of and supported by this government.”
The Courier-Mail was told members of the government’s backbench were caught off guard by last-minute amendments to legislation this week to legalise the detention of children in adult prisons and watch houses.
The laws, which avoided committee consultation and override the human rights act, particularly frustrated members of the Left faction.
But Mr de Brenni, who is a prominent Left figure in the party, insisted passing the laws was “the right thing to do”.
“Every single piece of legislation we have brought to the Queensland Parliament, we think through incredibly thoroughly – we don’t take any piece of legislation before the parliament lightly, everyone in our caucus and every group supports that legislation,” he said.
When Mr de Brenni was asked if it was appropriate for the Premier to holiday in Europe, he said Ms Palaszczuk can holiday “wherever she likes”.
“I’ve seen the Premier on more holidays here in Queensland in our local community than I think any other political leader, so wherever she goes I think Queenslanders know that people who work in those types of jobs deserve some downtime.
“They deserve some private time and the state will be well supported by the team that remains here in Queensland.”
Ms Palaszczuk also travelled overseas earlier this year and is a strong advocate for tourism revenue being spent in Queensland, particularly as the industry recovers from the pandemic.
When pressed about the timing of the holiday given the scrutiny on the government’s handling of sensitive youth justice laws and speculation about the leadership, Mr de Brenni said: “I’m not going to speculate on where my colleagues go for holidays, I just wish them safe travels and look forward to seeing them back.”
Griffith University political analyst Paul Williams said it was a matter of “when not if” Ms Palaszczuk being removed from the leadership role.
But the prominent commentator said the transition won’t replicate the brutality of Julia Gillard toppling Kevin Rudd, instead predicting a harmonious resignation at the request of party president John Battams and union powerbroker Gary Bullock.
Mr Williams said a factional and organisational agreement would likely decide who of the three contenders would become leader behind closed doors to avoid a messy vote from the party’s grassroots members.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen this week but I think it will happen before Christmas and maybe as early as October,” he said.
The political analyst said recent polling and clumsy parliamentary processes suggested it was “virtually certain now that Labor is headed for defeat” in next year’s election.
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