Attack Dog Steven Miles raises eyebrows as he lays into Andrew Laming
Steven Miles has the numbers to succeed Premier Palaszczuk, but a curious parliamentary spray has raised questions about his discipline.
G’day readers, and welcome to this week’s edition of Feeding the Chooks.
MOUTH FOR MILES
Steven Miles has the factional numbers to succeed Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk as Labor leader when she decides it’s time to exit stage left, but does her deputy have the discipline?
Miles has been running his mouth recently, most notably teeing off on a Townsville magistrate for the “media stunt” of letting 13 kids out on bail (breach of the separation of powers, anyone?).
But on Thursday, Miles said something under the cover of parliamentary privilege that would have probably led to a defamation lawsuit if he had the guts to say it outside the House.
Miles used a Dorothy Dixer from Labor whip and Capalaba MP Don Brown about flood preparedness as an opportunity to rile LNP MP Mark Robinson about a possible preselection challenge in his bayside seat of Oodgeroo.
Miles: “I thank the member for Capalaba for his question. I know that he is looking forward to building resilience in our Queensland community. I know that he is also looking forward to getting a new neighbour, with news that the LNP plans to parachute accused upskirter Andrew Laming into the seat of Oodgeroo. I wonder how the member for Oodgeroo feels about that?”
Perhaps Miles forgot former federal MP Laming legally forced apologies from high-profile journalists who tweeted similar allegations about him.
Laming also successfully sued the Nine Network – for a reported payout of $1m – after the broadcaster accused him of taking an “upskirting” photo of a woman in her workplace.
The former federal MP told Chooks: “You’d hope that whether it was intentional or not, he might write a handwritten apology note to my family to the damage he’s caused in parliament, and failing that, I only have a citizen’s right of reply, which I’ll probably progress if he doesn’t do that.”
“It stays in Hansard forever, it can’t be removed.
“It’s a gratuitous, bizarre segue to include these two words … and exploiting parliamentary privilege.”
Miles was predictably howled down in parliament by the LNP Opposition – Tim Nicholls suggested to Speaker Curtis Pitt that the language was unparliamentary and inaccurate – and the Deputy Premier withdrew.
But questions remain. Will Miles have to tone down his attack dog tendencies if he wants to be the next leader of Labor in Queensland, and potentially a future premier?
ROUGH JUSTICE
Youth Justice Minister Leanne Linard is considered by her opponents in the LNP as one of the brightest in Palaszczuk’s cabinet, but her own side do not seem to trust her to handle messaging on the politically charged youth crime crisis.
In recent months, spiralling juvenile crime has become a major political issue for the government with recidivist youths stealing cars and breaking into homes in Townsville, Cairns and Mount Isa and a series of murders, allegedly by teenagers, in Brisbane.
But the junior minister, promoted to the frontbench after the last election, has not held a single press conference this year and even slipped out the backdoor of Labor’s caucus meeting on Monday to avoid waiting journalists keen to ask about the government’s breach-of-bail reverse ferret.
Linard told parliament she answers questions that are put to her office (answers which, as is the case for all ministers, are heavily vetted by the Premier’s army of spin doctors).
“Indeed, whenever the media puts questions to me about what we are doing — and it was a reference to youth justice — I indeed respond, absolutely. It is important to respond to the questions that my office receives, and we always do so,” Linard said this week.
To her credit, Linard did attend a crime forum in Toowoomba last week, but it might be time to hand the youth justice portfolio to a more senior minister if the Premier’s office cannot trust Linard to defend the government’s position on youth crime.
WHAT’S JONO UP TO?
Jonathan Sriranganathan, the little Green seed from which big things grew, is rumoured to be quitting the Brisbane council after a seven-year run.
Queensland’s first Greens councillor, Sriranganathan paved the way for the party’s successful assault on a group of safe Liberal and Labor seats in Brisbane at successive state and federal elections.
The progressive minor party now holds two Brisbane-based state seats (South Brisbane and Maiwar) and three federal electorates (Brisbane, Ryan and Griffith).
But speculation is growing about whether Sriranganathan plans to run in the Gabba ward again at next year’s Brisbane City Council election.
The rapping councillor is not ready to lift the lid on his future just yet and tells Chooks he will have more to say in a few weeks.
In the meantime, the rumour mill about his career plans is in full-swing. Chooks has heard everything from a tilt at lord mayor, a run for state parliament, to quitting politics altogether.
Whatever he does, Chooks predicts it’ll be worth watching.
CASUAL VACANCY
Chooks hears the LNP’s regional vice-president Natalie Marr – a Townsville real estate agent who has served in the leadership position for less than two years – will step down at the party’s state council meeting in March.
Marr has told party president Lawrence Springborg she’s considering throwing her hat in the ring for a north Queensland seat at the state election in October next year.
She ran unsuccessfully at the 2020 against Labor’s Aaron Harper in Thuringowa. Springborg told members that nominations would close on March 1 for a casual vacancy until the party’s state convention in the middle of the year.
Marr took to Facebook in May last year to tap into Townsville’s growing anger at crime in the city, asking for “WRITTEN EXPERIENCES from VICTIMS” to “bind it into A BOOK” that she would present to the three local Labor MPs and Annastacia Palaszczuk.
“I want them to hear the stories of fear, anguish, grief and the emotional and financial burden we have endured for far too long,” Marr posted.
ROCKY TERRAIN
The Queensland government’s chief geologist has thrown a few stones at one of the state’s biggest miners.
Tony Knight, who has been in the role since 2016, called out mining recruiter Alex Wilkinson on Thursday for “boasting” about Glencore’s profits on LinkedIn.
Wilkinson posted that the Swiss mining giant had made a record profit, more than three times the previous year.
“Glencore Australia‘s Coal Mining Assets contributed significantly to this result with $17.9 billion coming from those operations, up from $5.2 billion twelve months earlier,” Wilkinson wrote.
Knight said it was great to see profit had tripled, but questioned its contribution to “people and planet”.
“Don’t boast of profit unless you can equally boast of what you’ve done to provide balance … and of consideration for future generations,” Knight wrote.
Cue eyebrow raise.
KATTER UP THE WRONG TREE
Crossbencher Robbie Katter has a lot on his plate. His state electorate – Traeger in northwest Queensland, based around Mount Isa – is bigger than some European countries. He’s the state leader of a motley band of three north Queensland MPs, and his dad’s Bob Katter, which is enough for anyone to be going on with.
This week in parliament though, the slog appeared to catch up with Katter for a moment.
On Wednesday afternoon, he rose in the chamber to speak on the Combating Coercive Control Bill, but there was just one problem – he’d brought the wrong speech.
Katter launched into pre-prepared remarks about the Births Deaths and Marriages Registration Bill, before he was gently pulled up by the Speaker.
“That’s a first for me, Mr Speaker, so there we go,” Katter said, to laughs from the MPs around him.
“I need to stop running around the precinct and get the right briefing notes. And I’ve probably given away the fact that I rarely refer to my notes when I’m speaking.”
The snafu – which was thoughtfully omitted from Hansard but Chooks dug up – didn’t stop Katter from embarking on a spirited defence of his Hinchinbrook comrade Nick Dametto’s much-maligned calls for men not to be overlooked in the debate about victims of domestic violence.
EARLY MARK LEAVES BURN
A sassy Facebook post criticising the government over Olympic development plans quickly came back to bite first-term Greens MP Amy MacMahon.
“Home from parliament just in time to catch some sun from the park Annastacia Palaszczuk and Queensland Labor want to bulldoze,” she wrote alongside a selfie with her dog.
“Soccer in full swing, people walking dogs, families unwinding after school – things worth fighting for.”
Palaszczuk fired back six minutes later: “We are still at parliament working.”
FAREWELL SPENCER
Veteran newsman turned Palaszczuk spinner Spencer Jolly is retiring.
Jolly began his career as a journo in the 1960s and reported on eight Queensland premiers from Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen to Campbell Newman.
In an all-staff email on Friday morning, the Premier’s deputy chief of staff Chris Taylor paid tribute to Jolly who will depart in a fortnight.
“In the late 1970s, Spencer moved to Brisbane and in the 1980s was appointed the Nine Network’s political editor, where he remained for 27 years,” Taylor wrote.
“In that role he was formidable, respected and often without equal. Incredibly well connected, incredibly knowledgeable, incredibly fair and – when it was required – incredibly tough.”
After retiring from Nine in 2013, Jolly’s plan was to farm rock oysters off North Stradbroke Island, but instead joined Palaszczuk’s media team.
“We have reached the true end of an era … but I know each of us will wish him well,” Taylor wrote.
“We’ll miss Spence – I know I will – but he’s destined for quieter things.”
Chooks will crack a few XXXX Golds in Jolly’s honour.
SPOTTED
A few familiar faces were spotted in the halls of Queensland Parliament for the first sitting week of 2023.
Former Palaszczuk government minister Kate Jones – who quit ahead of the last election – enjoyed a drink with some former colleagues in the parliament’s bar on Thursday night.
Young LNP president Darcy Creighton was seen with the party’s failed McConnel candidate Pinky Singh heading into parliament on Tuesday night.
PARTY GAMES
They say if you want a friend in politics, you should get a dog. But why not consider netball?
A Parliamentary Friends of Netball event on the Speaker’s Green this week saw MPs on all political teams don bibs to practise their ball-skills, alongside genuine superstars from the Sunshine Coast Lightning (including Sport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe’s niece Tara Hinchliffe) and the Queensland Firebirds.
TIP US
Chooks love a good yarn. Drop us a line:
elkss@theaustralian.com.au
lynchl@theaustralian.com.au
mckennam@theaustralian.com.au
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