George Street Beat: Qld politics behind-the-scenes news and gossip
She’s the longest serving female premier Australia’s ever had, but Annastacia Palaszczuk has failed to make a sufficient impression on one of the nation’s most respected political reporters despite featuring in her new book.
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It tripped up former Premier Campbell Newman in the last week of the 2015 campaign – and now the spelling of our current leader’s surname has embarrassingly caught out one of Australia’s top reporters.
In her latest book, Bulldozed, journalist Niki Savva unravels former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, including some extraordinary take-downs of Mr Morrison by some of his closest political allies, alongside a number of state Premiers.
Among them is Annastacia Palaszczuk, who made clear she hadn’t forgiven Mr Morrison for the “grenades” he had lobbed her way throughout their very public spats during the peak of Covid-19.
“He squandered the greatest opportunity a Prime Minister could ever have. He could have united the entire country,” she said in an interview for the book.
“But he divided states; he abused premiers. He backgrounded, he sent his media unit deliberately to get journalists to ask questions, pitting premier against premier. It was exhausting.”
Unfortunately, while the Premier is mentioned – by our count – five times, her last name is misspelt each time. Four times as “Palasczcuk” and once as “Palaszcuk”. Pretty rough for the longest serving female Premier the country has ever had. And for the record, Gladys Berejiklian does not suffer a similar fate.
Perhaps the author should have remembered the advice dished out from federal member Graham Perrett at the time of her election.
“For those struggling I have an easy trick to remember, it’s P-A-L-A, Sydney Zoo, Canberra Zoo, United Kingdom.” Saves us every time.
FINE MINES
The man holding the purse strings finally got to have a moment in the sun this week to attempt to justify those royalty hikes the pesky resources sector have been crying blue murder over in recent weeks.
And Cameron Dick was more than happy to crow at Wednesday’s Queensland Media Club about how swollen the state’s coffers were looking – an extra $2.2bn raised in royalties alone.
Unsurprisingly, mining companies were already pre-emptively selling their side of the story, again warning about the risk the tax poses to long-term investment in the sector.
But while he had his script set on how good high royalties was for Queensland, it was another question on who might make a successor to Ms Palaszczuk which appeared to prompt a more left-field response.
He was asked – given he has already said this year that he has “zero interest” in becoming Premier ¬- whether he thought Deputy Premier would make a good Premier.
After first giving Ms Palaszczuk a wrap, he then somewhat bizarrely said Miles was a good option “if anything was to happen to the Premier”. OK then. Probably not quite a ringing endorsement in that case.
UNCOORDINATED
Kudos to Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner for calling out one of the biggest oversights of the Olympics plans so far – a lack of a co-ordination authority to take charge of the Games infrastructure projects.
For months everyone on the Labor side – from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Sports Minister Anika Wells and the Premier herself – has been continually dodging the issue, despite it being one of the pledges taken to the IOC when Brisbane secured the Games.
While the Premier refused to be drawn in again, it was left to social media hound Transport Minister Mark Bailey to go on the attack.
Unsurprisingly, he appeared to miss the point, instead having a go at Mr Schrinner over Brisbane metro. At least we know that will be up and running by 2032.
KEEPING IT CASUAL
Covid-19 stay at home rules brought us many things, including a love for baking sourdough, sky high appreciation for teachers and classrooms, and freedom to wear pyjamas while working.
Remember how easy it was to just chuck on a smart business top for those pesky Zoom meetings and keep it casual on the bottom. Good times.
Well turns out that all doesn’t need to change if you’re Senator James McGrath rocking up to a Sky News interview.
Senator McGrath was spotted traipsing through the Courier-Mail building in Bowen Hills, home of Sky News’ Brisbane studio, in a business shirt, casual shorts and thongs.
It should also be noted this wasn’t late on a Sunday afternoon. It was a Monday.
PARLIAMENT MUCK-UP DAY
The Queen’s death led to a run of Friday sessions in the final few sitting weeks of parliament to make up for lost time (much to the groans of more than a few MPs) but it had one strong upside – the traditional Speaker’s drinks on the last day were not on a school night.
Instead Friday afternoon saw the drinks flowing, and the turning on of the Christmas lights.
We were pleased to see Speaker Curtis Pitt finally had a smile on his face after what was a rough last week – mainly thanks to some dodgy protesters entering the public gallery.
And didn’t the parliament know it, with a gaggle of MPs remarking “muck-up day has begun” when all was said and done.
FINAL COUNTDOWN
And tik-tok. With the last week of parliament done and the end of the year approaching, the Premier only has a few weeks left to make good on her promise to add Paralympics to her Ministerial title before the end of the year.
The Premier and her myriad staff have refused to comment on when that might actually happen, but we have confirmed she will have to make the trek up Fernberg Rd to visit Governor Jeannette Young to do so.
We asked Government House whether they had any idea when it might be happening – and they weren’t able to shed any light.
But we can’t help but wonder whether it will be an all-out event – as it was when Ms Palaszczuk made herself Olympics Minister – or whether it will be a “breaking” announcement she will first share with her select social media followers.
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