Jackie Trad under siege as voters abandon Deputy Premier in wake of integrity crisis

An exclusive poll commissioned by The Courier-Mail has revealed support for Jackie Trad has plummeted in the wake of her ill-fated purchase of a property near the Cross River Rail project.

JACKIE Trad faces a titanic fight to retain her inner Brisbane seat with support for the beleaguered Deputy Premier plummeting since the 2017 state election.

An exclusive poll commissioned by The Courier-Mail has revealed Ms Trad’s vote in the high-profile contest of South Brisbane has nose-dived with just 10 months left before next year’s October 31 state election.

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Support for Jackie Trad has plummeted since the 2017 state election, with the Deputy Premier facing a huge fight to retain her inner Brisbane seat. Picture: AAP/Glenn Hunt

The Left faction leader, who is often touted as the most powerful person in Queensland, still holds a slender two-party preferred lead but confronts the embarrassing prospect of being shunted into third place behind The Greens and the LNP if she loses any further support.

The results come after the controversy and cacophony of Ms Trad’s ill-fated purchase of a three-bedroom property in Woolloongabba near the Cross River Rail project, which dominated the Queensland political landscape for six months.

The Courier-Mail revealed Ms Trad failed to include the home as required on Parliament’s Register of Member’s Interests, participated in Cabinet meetings without declaring her conflict and successfully pushed to retain a new train station proposed near her property.

Ms Trad was forced to sell the $695,500 home for no profit after a damning assessment by the state’s Integrity Commissioner and was stripped of responsibility for Cross River Rail.

A Crime and Corruption Commission probe found her actions were not criminal but should be.

The watchdog’s proposed new laws to apply criminal sanctions to ministers who fail to properly declare their interests were introduced into Parliament last week and will be debated next year.

Ms Trad also faces an Ethics Committee investigation after being referred by Speaker Curtis Pitt.

The UComms Poll of almost 700 South Brisbane residents has revealed Ms Trad’s primary vote has crashed from 36 per cent in the 2017 election to 27.5 per cent.

The Greens, who are yet to confirm a candidate but have fuelled anti-Adani sentiment in the electorate after the controversial mine was approved by the Government, are ahead of Ms Trad with 29.4 per cent of the vote, down from the 34 per cent at the election.

The LNP has been the main beneficiary of the debacle, with support inching forward from 24 per cent to 26.6 per cent, less than 1 per cent behind the Deputy Premier and Treasurer.

A significant 10 per cent of the electorate remains undecided and only a quarter of those voters indicated they were leaning towards Labor.

Ms Trad’s support was weakest among female voters, with just 25 per cent backing her, and strongest in the 65 years and older age group.

The Greens dominated among younger voters, with 36.6 per cent of those in the 18-34 year age bracket backing the party.

On a two-party preferred basis, Ms Trad led 52 per cent to The Greens’ 48 per cent, down from the 3.6 per cent margin she achieved at the 2017 election in which Adani was a central issue.

However, the poll’s preferences don’t accommodate for the impact of LNP how-to-vote cards, with the party planning to break from convention and advise its voters to back The Greens over Ms Trad in South Brisbane.

The eclectic inner-city seat shapes as a major flashpoint at next year’s election and a distraction from the main campaign, at which Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will aim to secure a historic third term.