Jackie Trad has until Monday to renominate for state election
Jackie Trad has said she will contest the October state election, but that is far from guaranteed. And her true intentions should become clearer within days, writes Steven Wardill.
QLD News
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A CLEARER picture might emerge on Monday as to whether beleaguered former deputy premier Jackie Trad really does intend to stay in politics.
Trad insisted on Saturday she’d recontest her seat of South Brisbane, but that was before she knew her ministerial career was over and someone would soon be clearing out her 1 William St “tower of power” office.
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Former Queensland Labor leaders and their deputies don’t often hang around in state politics after they’ve given up the trappings of Cabinet.
And more than most others “formers”, it’s hard to imagine Trad toiling away as a humbled backbencher although her love for her eclectic community could never be questioned.
In fact, it might partly explain why she’s currently in this mess with Queensland’s corruption watchdog.
However, between the rising Green army and the LNP’s decision to preference Trad last at the state election on October 31, winning South Brisbane isn’t going to be easy.
Would she really want to risk the ignominy of first losing her lofty station and then losing her seat?
Monday is crucial, because that’s when nomination close for sitting Labor MPs after-party headquarters fortuitously chose to open them on the day that Trad’s ministerial responsibilities were officially carved up and cast around to her former Cabinet colleagues.
Maybe Trad will complete the paperwork and decide at another time whether public life still has any appeal, possibly after she’s cleared by the Crime and Corruption Commission.
Or maybe it will be the watchdog that decides her fate, although that seems unlikely.
Right now Trad’s future is a blank canvas, and very few have a clue what she might do.
Originally published as Jackie Trad has until Monday to renominate for state election