Qld election 2020: Former powerbroker Jackie Trad faces a tough fight for re-election

How former Queensland deputy premier Jackie Trad went from powerbroker to outcast and ‘99 per cent’ likely to lose her seat.

Just a few months ago, Jackie Trad was one of the most powerful figures in Queensland.

The former deputy premier was a force among Labor’s left faction until a corruption scandal forced her resignation in May.

Ms Trad was investigated by the Crime and Corruption Commission over claims she had interfered with the recruitment of a principal at the Inner City South State Secondary College.

This came after being cleared by the CCC for failing to declare a $695,000 house in Woolloongabba, an inner-Brisbane suburb, following reports in The Courier-Mail.

And now, as Ms Trad trails the Greens candidate in the South Brisbane electorate, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has distanced herself from her former deputy.

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Jackie Trad was once a regular alongside Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: Peter Wallis

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Ms Palaszczuk has insisted Ms Trad won’t be invited back into cabinet if Labor retains power at the state poll on Saturday and hasn’t appeared to offer much support to the former treasurer’s campaign.

South Brisbane has been a Labor stronghold for decades, but Ms Trad risks succumbing to Greens challenger Amy MacMahon.

Ms Trad has also featured heavily in the LNP’s anti-Labor campaign material, which has regularly referred to the South Brisbane member as “Dodgy Jackie”.

The only way to stop Dodgy Jackie becoming Premier is to vote 1 LNP.#qldpol pic.twitter.com/7ThSPTFXO1

— LNP - Liberal National Party (@LNPQLD) October 27, 2020

“Let’s just say she’s not a popular figure,” Griffith University political scientist Paul Williams told NCA NewsWire.

“There are no votes for Labor for Palaszczuk to be in photo ops with Trad and then for that to be spread over the nightly news - they’re obviously avoiding that.”

Dr Williams said Ms Trad’s popularity was a victim of the duality of Queensland political leadership, where the premier protects their own image by reserving appearances for positive news.

This leaves the deputy premier to do the tough and ugly work among the government’s leadership team.

“Jackie Trad was a very good head kicker but maybe too good, and that’s where some of the animosity began,” he said.

“Some voters tell me they see her as an abrasive, combative figure, and that’s not always good.

“And then that was all compounded by integrity scandals. You put those two things together and it’s not a winning formula.”

Greens candidate for South Brisbane Amy MacMahon. Picture: Liam Kidston.

Professor Susan Harris Rimmer, Policy Innovation Hub director at Griffith University, said Labor should be less interested in how Ms Trad was perceived and more focused on keeping her in power.

“The imperative is for her to hold her seat, so that should be the strategy. All of the rest of it can wait,” Professor Harris Rimmer said.

“It’s premature to concentrate on cabinet at the moment because it might be a hung parliament.”

Professor Harris Rimmer said the people of South Brisbane were more concerned with local issues such as infrastructure as well as clean energy and youth jobs.

She told NCA NewsWire the election result would “absolutely” come down to a couple of hundred votes, but Dr Williams was more certain Ms MacMahon would pinch the seat for the Greens.

“I think Trad is 99 per cent gone,” he said.

Dr Williams said the best chance the incumbent member had was LNP voters who couldn’t stomach the Greens who might preference Labor ahead of Ms MacMahon.

“But given Jackie’s primary vote is so low at 32 per cent, that’s a tough ask,” the political scientist said.

“I just can’t see how she will survive. Labor folk tell me I’m wrong, but I just can’t see it.”

NCA NewsWire contacted Ms Trad for comment.