Power list: Why Annastacia Palaszczuk is not Qld’s most powerful person
The Premier of Queensland should be the most powerful person in the state. But Annastacia Palaszczuk was not at the top of The Courier-Mail’s Top 100 Power List.
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The Premier of Queensland, you would think, should be the most powerful person in the state.
But this is not the case, with a unionist beating Annastacia Palaszczuk to the number one spot in The Courier-Mail’s exclusive Top 100 Power List.
Why? Because Labor – and in particular this Labor government – is beholden to the unions, and in this Sunshine State of ours, one man calls the shots.
He is Gary Bullock, state secretary and national political director of the United Workers Union.
Bullock – or Blocker as he is known – is an unfamiliar face to most Queenslanders. You won’t see him fronting press conferences or grabbing headlines.
But Labor owes him, and he is ready and willing to collect.
The UWU represents some 150,000 workers – across hospitality, ambulance and health, manufacturing, tourism, supermarkets, education (early childhood educators, teacher aides), cleaning, aged care, call centres and logistics – but that’s not the main reason Blocker is so powerful.
He bankrolled the campaigns of many now-Labor MPs when the party was considered a slim chance to win the 2015 election.
This means many in the caucus owe him their job – and will vote the way he tells them.
The Premier also owes her position to Bullock and the alliance between her faction and the Left that made her party leader in 2012.
Decisions are rarely made around the Cabinet table without the question being asked: “What does Blocker think?”
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