Livestream: South Brisbane candidates debate
Election candidates in the state’s most-watched seat of South Brisbane have traded barbs in a fiery, must-watch debate, with Jackie Trad confronting her Greens rival Amy McMahon over an “incredibly sexist” tweet this week. WATCH THE REPLAY.
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JACKIE Trad has backed the power of the unions to choose the Cabinet, rather than the Premier.
In a South Brisbane debate hosted by The Courier-Mail, Ms Trad was asked whether she backed Labor’s democratic processes of choosing government ministers.
“Look, the rules of the Labor party caucus are decades old and they’re the rules that we have,” she said.
WATCH THE REPLAY ABOVE
The question comes after a dangerous flashpoint was exposed last week when Annastacia Palaszczuk stated she would not have Ms Trad back in her Cabinet, regardless of whether she won her seat or whether her powerful Left faction recommended her for a place.
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The move incensed those in The Left and led to a slap down from union boss and Left powerbroker Gary Bullock, who said: “The Labor Party has democratic processes that will determine who is in Cabinet.”
Under traditional Labor rules, each of the three factions nominates MPs for the ministry based on the proportion of seats they hold.
The debate, which concentrated on local issues, also saw Ms Trad confront her Greens challenger Amy MacMahon over sexist attacks from Greens party members, including a vile social media post from Greens’ South Brisbane branch secretary Joann Horton.
“This party is the nastiest skank bitch I’ve ever met. DO NOT TRUST THEM. they are a fugly s***!!!!!” it said, referencing the movie Mean Girls.
Ms MacMahon criticised Labor ministers for concentrating on the tweet, instead of their important work.
But Ms Trad called on her to apologise for the “incredibly sexist” tweet.
“Amy should just be a leader, she should apologise for this,” she said.
“Leadership is about standing up and apologising and copping it and moving on.”
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LNP candidate Clem Grehan said all candidates should “behave with decorum”.
“There was a bit of a cat fight this morning at the pre-polling booth between the Greens and Labor, so, that’s what our people there told us, so it’s still going on,” he said.
“I’d like to see a bit of decorum, it would be good if people could behave as adults.”
Mr Grehan defended his party’s preference decision in South Brisbane to put the Greens ahead of Labor, saying Ms Trad was “the greenest Green in parliament”.
Meanwhile, Ms MacMahon said people felt let down and weren’t being listened to in regards to their climate change concerns, which was why protests like today’s Extinction Rebellion were happening.
“No one’s being listened to, people on the ground feel let down by both Labor and the LNP who have been taking millions of dollars in donations from fossil fuel companies who are directly contributing to climate change,” she said.
“And what do people do when they’re desperate, when they’re not being listened to, when their local members are defending opening up new coal mines or secret royalties deals with Adani, what are they going to do?
“Civil disobedience is the end result of a political result that is no longer connected to the people on the ground.”
Ms Trad criticised the Greens for proposing millions of dollars of election commitments to be paid for by taxing miners more money, while also arguing for the closure of coal mines.
She said the policies were a contradiction and “really simplistic university politics”.