Anthony Albanese should be careful modelling future government on Qld

Anthony Albanese should be careful what he wishes for if he’s going to use the Palaszczuk government’s performance as a ‘template’ for his government. For one thing, he’ll need to put his longed-for corruption watchdog to one side, writes Peter Gleeson.

Anthony Albanese had better be careful what he wishes for if he intends to use the Palaszczuk government’s performance as a “template’’ for his government.

Labor’s obsession with a federal corruption watchdog is in stark contrast to the indifferent way the Queensland government treats integrity, transparency and accountability.

If an Albanese government adopted the Palaszczuk model on governing, half his cabinet would be in the sights of a federal ICAC.

The level of sophistication and chicanery used by the government to establish Labor Inc in Queensland – with huge influence in the public service, unions and judiciary – makes the Bjelke-Petersen regime look like choirboys.

Anthony Albanese with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Under Labor Inc, the politicised bureaucracy is beholden to the unions who deduct tasty fees from public servants and then reinvest much of that dough into getting Labor re-elected.

Mandarins in the senior echelons of the public service are the messengers for ministers who take their riding instructions from the unions. Judicial appointments are all about rewarding Labor “mates’’ with ties to the party who are given plum jobs.

Child safety and youth justice is in crisis and the hospitals are so overrun that ambulance ramping is now the norm, not the exception.

And all this happens in a culture of secrecy and obfuscation where even the whiff of a scandal is erased through deception and red herrings.

If Albanese wants to run Australia like Labor Inc in Queensland, the country is in deep trouble.

Of course, Albanese’s play is designed to coalesce swinging voters who may have a soft spot for Palaszczuk, especially the blue-rinse set, who voted for her after she kept them safe from Covid-19.

Albanese also has to win over coalminers in Central Queensland, who deserted Bill Shorten after he assured them they would continue to have jobs while he was in Rockhampton but said the opposite in West End, Balmain and St Kilda.

Albanese is a prisoner of the Labor Left faction, an evil, job-destroying cult that is better off merging with the Greens.

They’d lynch him if he didn’t close down coal-fired power stations and phase out mining.

Albo says he wants to lead like Bob Hawke, John Howard and now Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Australians need to know the real Anthony Albanese – who he really is – before giving him the keys to The Lodge.

Right now, he’s getting his riding instructions from a bloke named Kevin Rudd.

We all know how that story ended

Originally published as Anthony Albanese should be careful modelling future government on Qld