Former Labor president says it’s time for Jo-Ann Miller to go
A day after Jo-Ann Miller publicly slammed embattled Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie Trad, a former Labor president says it’s time for the veteran Bundamba MP to consider her future and run for council instead.
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LABOR veteran MP Jo-Ann Miller has been told “it’s time to go” by a former Labor president just a day after she publicly unleashed on Deputy Premier Jackie Trad.
Former president and ETU powerbroker Dick Williams told The Courier-Mail it was time the long-serving MP considered her future, suggesting she should move to contest the Ipswich mayoralty at next month’s council election instead.
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“Bottom line is, she’s been there, she’s done that,” he said of Mrs Miller, who celebrated her 20-year anniversary in the job this month.
“She’s got a pension for life and it’s time to go. It’s time to move on and give someone else a go. I personally think it would be a shame to end her career as a seat warmer.”
Mr Williams – who was ALP state president from 2012 to 2016 – said Mrs Miller was a hardworking local member who had achieved a lot, especially regarding coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), also known as black lung.
He said the people of Ipswich would be lucky to have Mrs Miller if she ran for Ipswich mayor, a move she had confirmed she is considering.
“The people of Ipswich deserve a whole lot more (than their previous council),” he said. “I really do think she should consider her future and there’s a couple of options there for her.”
The call comes after Mrs Miller launched a surprise public attack on Ms Trad on Monday following days of ructions driven by backbenchers and senior Labor figures angry at the Deputy Premier’s performance.
Mrs Miller labelled Ms Trad a “four-letter word” in a radio interview before attending a press conference with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in which the Premier cut down Mrs Miller over her name-calling and her decision to embrace One Nation leader Pauline Hanson at the 2017 election that had upset a lot of her colleagues.
“Trad is a four-letter word, isn’t it … Maybe I should leave it at that,” she told ABC radio.
Ms Palaszczuk called for unity, telling people to stop worrying about other people’s jobs and start worrying about their own.
Mrs Miller then held her own press conference in which she complained of internal Labor bullying and called on Ms Trad to have a “good long look at herself” for the good of the party.
Ms Trad responded by saying Queenslanders were sick of politicians talking about politicians.
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