George Street Beat: Qld politics news and gossip
Annastacia Palaszczuk was making like Oprah on a trip to North Queensland this week, and insiders reckon they know why.
QLD Politics
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It was economic Christmas in Townsville this week, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk descending on the North Queensland capital and making like Oprah, saying you get a $5bn power project and here’s an industrial complex.
Ms Palaszczuk went so far as to announce she would be opening an office for herself in Townsville.
Political insiders, including within Labor, are convinced that dire internal polling amid an escalation in the youth crime crisis in the north is behind the move.
A Labor source described the mood on the ground as a “general feeling of hopelessness” and a “sense of desperation”, with the community growing angrier about youth crime as the conversation continues in online forums.
There’s simply no room to sell other messages, even though the region is doing well on the economic front with jobs and investment galore.
Some up north are convinced that if a state election were held today, there would be a Labor wipe-out in the three Townsville seats, with the impact similar in Cairns.
The Labor optimists hope recent youth crime law changes (and backflips) will make a difference by the time October 2024 rolls around, while the pessimists think the argument is already lost.
A GAME OF TWO HALVES
Labor’s bad fortune is generally the LNP’s gain.
The Opposition party held its state convention in Townsville at the weekend, perhaps hoping flooding the place with blue would help.
To get members in the right headspace, the party called in Phil Jauncey, whose own website says he is “widely regarded as Australia’s foremost performance psychologist”.
Dr Jauncey has worked with the likes of super coach Wayne Bennett and the Australian Olympic team about three times.
Dr Jauncey surely imparted some get-up-and-go wisdom to LNP members, though his message wasn’t heard by a number of MPs – because while he was giving his speech at a dinner, they were at the footy.
A number of MPs, including Opposition Leader David Crisafulli, were off watching the North Queensland Cowboys beat the Canberra Raiders by one point at Townsville’s Queensland Country Bank Stadium.
It is unknown how much the LNP paid, if anything, to book Dr Jauncey.
One website puts his fees between $5000 and $10,000.
COPPERSTRING 2.0 BLOWOUT
The scale of North Queensland’s $5bn energy backbone – Copperstring 2.0 – is hard to visualise.
So if you were trying to get people to understand the breadth of a project that stretches from Mt Isa to Townsville, how would you do it?
According to the Department of State Development, in a post published on LinkedIn, Copperstring 2.0 is “almost the same distance from France to Italy!”
Considering those nations share a border, Copperstring 2.0 is basically a 3m extension cable purchasable at Bunnings for $7 and not a full 1100km.
Wow, that cost blowout is something else.
It’s likely the social media intern was referring to the distance of Paris to Rome, which is 1200km or so.
The hilarity of the geography slip-up wasn’t lost on the state government’s fastest-rising public servant, with Mike Kaiser commenting on what the physics were when it comes to transmitting electricity at 500kV over “an infinitely small distance”.
“At least there would be low transmission losses!” he said.
GOLD MEDAL FOOT SHOOTING
The state government has finally confirmed – after months of questions – that it has officially dumped the Olympic Co-ordination Authority, and instead will manage projects within existing departments.
The OCA was intended to work alongside the BOCOG – the organising committee – which, due to the way it’s structured, has also undergone early upheaval.
London 2012 boss and Olympic champion Sebastian Coe told the Toward the Games podcast it was important to set up a board which has opposition voices to ensure constituency over the long lead-up to a Games with political shake ups and government changes almost a certainty.
Mr Coe said London’s set up proved crucial, with “opposition MPs transitioning into well-briefed Ministers” with new opposition players understanding the nuance and importance of key decisions.
Without an independent authority overseeing infrastructure, it seems any notion of consistency has also gone by the wayside.
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