Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk reveals motivation behind cabinet reshuffle
In an exclusive interview, Annastacia Palaszczuk opens up on the cabinet reshuffle and her next successor, including one legitimate leadership contender.
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The wellbeing of government frontbenchers was a key factor in the rare reshuffle of the cabinet Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has revealed, as she declared her ministers were “only human”.
And Ms Palaszczuk, in an exclusive interview in the immediate aftermath of the shake-up, said it would take a “very serious issue” for someone to be removed from cabinet and there were no new faces at the table because there was “no vacancy”.
She also stood by her disdain for a leadership succession plan but affirmed there were a “handful of people” on the team who could become Premier one day, and she was “equipping” talented people for the future of the government and Labor.
When that might be is unknown, with Ms Palaszczuk reaffirming she remained “absolutely energised and absolutely committed” as the Premier that would lead Labor to the next election.
A reshuffle of the cabinet this week has been sold as a “new beginning” for the nearly decade old Labor government, with Ms Palaszczuk conceding she had “heard the message loud and clear” that the team “needs to do better”.
Now she’s revealed the parliament’s week in Cairns, including the passing of laws to make treaties with First Nations groups happen, had “consolidated” her mind that the time was right.
And the wellbeing of her ministers was also front of mind, with Ms Palaszczuk noting the events in Cairns which ended with Speaker Curtis Pitt taking time off to care for his mental health.
“Everybody’s human, and I’ve got to make sure that everybody is travelling well. So I’ll take into account how everyone’s going,” she said.
“Every single job will have pressures, in all walks of life, and no one is immune to those pressures.
“But what I’ve done is I have made this reshuffle, responding to who I believe are the best people to be in those jobs for the people of this state.”
Labor sources through the tumultuous week had pointed to concerns about the pressures faced by the state’s highest profile ministers amid unrelenting public scrutiny and pressure.
Yvette D’Ath steps back into the role as the state’s first law officer, while Leeanne Enoch became the first Aboriginal woman to hold the Indigenous portfolio and young gun Meaghan Scanlon took on housing as her sole responsibility.
Youth Justice and Child Safety Minister Leanne Linard was stripped of both portfolios which were then split – the former landing with Di Farmer and the latter to Craig Crawford. Ms Linard is now the Environment Minister.
The responsibility for health, as the harshest portfolio, has since landed with Shannon Fentiman who was also named the state’s mental health minister.
Ms Fentiman has risen through government ranks to become a legitimate leadership contender, her performance in Health expected to either propel leadership aspirations or torpedo her chances.
Asked if she was equipping Ms Fentiman with the skills and expertise to one day lead government by placing her in the toughest role, Ms Palaszczuk said there “are a lot of ministers that have a lot of talent”.
“I would like to think that there is a handful of people there that have the capacity of being a Premier
“Back before I was Opposition Leader, and I was Transport Minister, no one said I was going to be Premier,” she said.
“So sometimes, you’ve got to look across the board. And I think I’m equipping a whole lot of talented people there for the future of the party and the government.
But there are also no fresh faces on the frontbench, in an omission derided by the Opposition as the government “reheating a bad lunch”.
Ms Palaszczuk said there simply was “no vacancy” on the frontbench, a stance she stuck to when it was pointed out she can make vacancies by demoting someone from cabinet.
The closest she has come to expelling a minister was Jo-Ann Miller in 2015 after the ethics committee criticised the eccentric MP for a “pattern of reckless behaviour”.
Minister Mark Bailey stood aside while he was being investigated, and ultimately cleared of wrongdoing, for using his personal email address for official purposes in the “Mangocube” affair.
Minister Stirling Hinchliffe quit cabinet in early 2017 following a damning report into southeast Queensland’s rail fail but was returned to the frontbench by the end of the same year.
“It has to be very serious issue for someone to be to be removed from cabinet,” Ms Palaszczuk said, before pointing out that reshuffles were a normal part of government business.
Palaszczuk said she wanted all the new ministers to “hit the ground running”, signalling a heightened focus particularly on health and housing.
“In the next 17 months, I want to see more people getting into housing and showing that we’ve actually built more social housing,” she said.
“The new ministry is absolutely focused on those three key issues, housing, and health and crime.”
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