George St Beat: Premier reveals special plans for King Charles’ coronation
The Premier has been caught in a well-trodden embarrassing gaffe which can hit even the most high-profile “influencer”.
QLD Politics
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Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was a bit coy this week when we asked her if she would be swearing allegiance to the King ahead of his coronation on Saturday.
In fact, she didn’t really answer the question at all.
“We look forward to the coronation on the weekend and when parliament is sitting in Cairns we will have a motion noting the King’s ascension to the throne,” the Premier said.
“I think they’re planning to light up our monuments around the city in purple.”
And as for how she will be marking the day, Ms Palaszczuk said: “I think I’m at a wedding.”
The Premier’s toned down celebrations got us thinking what the Queensland parliament’s most devout monarchist – deputy LNP leader Jarrod Bleijie – would be up to on the day.
A very enthusiastic Mr Bleijie told us he would visit Government House at Paddington with his family, before later attending a viewing party of the coronation with the Young LNP.
“I’m excited,” he said.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for many Queenslanders to experience something that we’ve never experienced before in many people’s lifetime.
“The Premier should tell her mate to cancel or play the coronation at the wedding.”
Mr Bleijie, who is a national spokesman for the Australian Monarchist League, confirmed he would be pledging allegiance to the crown.
God Save the King.
SOCIALLY SPINNING
We’ve pointed out before how much our pollies love social media, but even with an apparent cast of thousands running the Twitter and Instagram show, blunders still happen.
The Premier was caught in a well-trodden embarrassing gaffe which can hit even the most high-profile “influencer”, with a post on her Twitter page about satellite hospitals including “is this OK?” – seemingly a note left from one of her spinners.
And it seemed it was a bad week for those behind the keyboard in the Labor Party, with a tweet celebrating new councillor Lucy Collier starting with “caption can be very simple”.
While we’re on Twitter, we note the Premier was one of those caught up in eccentric billionaire owner Elon Musk’s “blue tick” cull, with Ms Palaszczuk now rocking an unverified account – as is David Crisafulli.
We see however Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has managed to hold on – albeit with a grey tick, set aside for government figures.
While it came off less than spectacularly online, it was a pleasant surprise to see Ms Palaszczuk not only visit one of the state’s under-construction satellite hospitals – but remember to invite the media!
OUT OF SPACE
We’ve noted multiple times a pattern where those in power are more than happy to pose for happy snaps onsite and share them – where else – on social media, while keeping away from the annoying questions of the press pack.
And we could hardly blame them – given the satellite hospitals are more than $100m over budget and were all meant to be open by next week (that’s now looking more like 2024).
Oh, and even a top Queensland Health executive has said they shouldn’t be called hospitals – given they aren’t hospitals, but medical centres – and that it could lead to problems with people going to them expecting one.
However the Premier was almost off the hook on the controversial project, given her appearance coincided with another disastrous week for the government on the topic of youth crime, spending her hard-hat donning media conference taking questions on that crisis instead.
POLLIES ON PATROL
It’s that time of year when parliament resembles school camp, with the crew heading up north to Cairns for next week’s sitting of regional parliament.
With the Cairns Convention Centre undergoing a major expansion, the sitting was set to be the biggest event yet hosted, with not only the politicians but their staffers and the media also calling it home for a few days.
But as one insider griped to us, word is the centre is giving off Athens Olympics vibes, with walls unpainted and major sections of the venue still not ready.
Apparently just finding space for the pollies to be set up to go about their week is proving a problem, and our money is on the two major parties not wanting to give up more than they have to.
But one thing which won’t be skimped on is the democratic pageantry which accompanies sitting weeks – with everything from the Speaker’s chair to the President’s desk making the trip.
GAME FACE
If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s probably that we don’t want to be still painting walls and installing seats in the lead-up to our own big Games in 2032.
And while David Crisafulli has faced some criticism recently for his apparent fence-sitting on certain issues – including whether he will support the Voice – we got a solid pledge from him on that very topic this week.
We asked the LNP leader whether he would commit to bringing back the dumped Olympic Coordination Authority – the independent infrastructure body meant to oversee Games projects the Labor government have decided they can do without.
“Absolutely – you can sign that in stone,” he said, adding it was the right thing to do given that’s what was promised in the first place.
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