Jackie Trad faces losing Left faction colleague Bruce Saunders
Deputy Premier Jackie Trad – in Cairns for tourism crisis talks – has deflected questions about a reported heated argument with a factional ally and a secret meeting of Labor’s ministerial leadership team, saying speculation about her political fate was “gossip”.
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DEPUTY Premier Jackie Trad said speculation about her political fate was “gossip”.
“I’m here to talk about jobs, not to comment on gossip,” Ms Trad said, speaking outside tourism crisis talks in Cairns.
Asked by The Courier-Mail: “Did you phone Bruce Saunders? What did you talk about? And was it heated?”, she deflected.
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“The Cairns economy is confronting one of biggest crises that they have seen since the GFC. My focus is on how we can protect jobs in this region,’’ Ms Trad said.
“Gossip that appears in newspapers is of no interest to me.”
What do you say to MPs who want you to go to the backbench, obviously they’ve been fuelling the gossip?, reporters asked.
“I would say to every single member of parliament, Queenslanders need us to focused on them, on their jobs, on their economic security,” the Treasurer said.
Asked by The Courier-Mail: “Would you consider going to the backbench and fighting for your own seat like Kate Jones did?
“I’ve been a member of parliament since 2012, at every election I have fought for my seat, I have never taken it for granted.
“I fight for best schools and hospitals, best teachers, best roads, the best public transport system”.
So, is the best thing for you to get out of the ministry to save your own party?, The Courier-Mail asked.
“The best thing for me is to maintain my laser-like focus on priorities and things that matter to Queenslanders, their economic prosperity, their jobs and their children’s future.”
Ms Trad announced a $3.67 million fee relief package for reef operators at Cairns Marina hit by up to an 80 per cent downturn in visitors under the impact of coronavirus COVID-19.
The State-owned Ports North has put up a 100 per cent rebate on mooring fees at the marina and base rent for retail and restaurant tenants for the next six months to help them ride out the tourism crisis.
Commercial lobster, mud crab and coral trout fishers will get a $666,000 package with quota fees waived after huge losses in the export market during Chinese New Year.
THE PHOTO THAT COULD MEAN BIG TROUBLE FOR TRAD
Jackie Trad’s grip on her Deputy Premier and Treasurer role was yesterday dealt a bitter blow after Maryborough MP Bruce Saunders told colleagues he was planning to quit her Left faction.
The Courier-Mail can reveal the second-term MP informed some of his Labor caucus colleagues that he was resigning his factional allegiance to the Left after he and Ms Trad had a heated telephone argument.
Labor sources last night described Mr Saunder’s decision as a “fit of pique” and “Bruce being Bruce”.
Other insisted his shift was definite and damaging.
Mr Saunder’s defection will shift the power balance in the Labor caucus away from Ms Trad’s dominant Left faction and will add fuel the internal push among a band of MPs and party figures to remove her from the ministry.
The Courier-Mail revealed two weeks ago that forces within the Labor partyroom were agitating to remove Ms Trad from her powerful role in the belief she had become an electoral liability eight months from the state election.
It comes after the damaging integrity scandal that engulfed Ms Trad last year over her failure to properly disclose and declare her family’s purchase of a property along the route of the $5.4 billion Cross River Rail project.
The latest opinion poll shows the saga has punched a hole in Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s popularity while her Government is locked neck-and-neck with the Deb Frecklington-led LNP and at risk of being shunted into minority administration on October 31.
The factional flare-up coincided with a secret meeting of Labor’s ministerial leadership team at a Scenic Rim retreat.
A photograph obtained by The Courier-Mail showed Tourism Minister Kate Jones in talks with union powerbroker Gary Bullock and Labor state secretary Julie-Ann Campbell.
Mr Saunders could not be contacted last night.
However, his resignation comes after he told The Australian newspaper yesterday of “tense and frank” conversations with the Treasurer last year during the integrity scandal and how in the past he had told colleagues she should resign.
Mr Saunders insisted he had recently changed his mind and told Ms Trad she should “hang on”.
Labor sources last night said Mr Saunders was telling colleagues that Ms Trad telephoned to confronted him over his comments, which had prompted his decision to quit.
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