Erinn Swan swans into new gig while One Nation MP keeps mum on vax
She gave flight to Labor’s “Mediscare” campaign in the 2016 federal election that was widely credited with almost toppling the then-Turnbull government.
Now Erinn Swan has landed as a “senior digital advisor” in the office of Annastacia Palaszczuk.
The daughter of former federal treasurer and ALP prez Wayne Swan is back in politics after arriving home in July with techie husband, John, and their two kids following a year in lockdown in rural Ireland.
Chooks has already noticed a sharper edge to the Premier’s ever-expanding online presence – otherwise known as the Palaszczuk News Network (PNN) – ably put together by her 30-strong media team.
Swan was Labor’s digital director for the 2016 federal election campaign, when she came up with an online attack ad about Medicare.
The fed government had begun to outsource some backroom functions of Medicare, and Swan put an idea to ALP national secretary George Wright – who went onto work for NAB and now BHP – to get Bob Hawke to front an ad that the Coalition were looking to privatise Medicare.
It wasn’t true, but with the gravitas of Hawkie, it blew-up online and was quickly converted to TV commercials and spam text messages, before morphing into Labor’s central “Save Medicare” campaign that stripped the Coalition’s majority from 15 to one seat.
The opposition got a taste of its own medicine in 2019, when Clive Palmer ran similar ads claiming – without a skerrick of evidence – that the opposition was going to bring back the death tax.
Interesting to see if Swan – the former lead singer of Brisbane Hip Hop band “The Hangout” – is more than a one-hit wonder.
But just a helpful reminder with the federal campaign coming-up, you are being paid by state taxpayers.
Parliamentary debate on mandate
Do as I say, not as I do.
Annastacia Palaszczuk will use the might of parliament (through the Public Health Act) to mandate Covid vaccines for workers and those wanting to hit the bars or clubs.
But the unvaccinated – including staffers, public servants and visitors – will still be allowed to walk the halls of parliament.
No leadership from the premier on this one, with it being left to Neil Laurie, clerk of Queensland Parliament and the Speaker Curtis Pitt.
Laurie, a lawyer and veteran of the parliament said the pair were considering implementing vaccination mandates for staff and visitors to the precinct.
“It has been our preference to date to encourage and incentivise vaccination. But we recognise that this may not be sufficient to ensure vaccinations and discharge our duties of care,” he said.
Laurie said the process “cannot and should not be rushed”.
On the pollie front, 91 of the 93 MPs in Queensland’s unicameral parliament (who needs an upper house, when there is so much fun going on downstairs) are confirmed as having had the jab.
Sunshine Coast-based MP Brent Mickelberg, who had his first AstraZeneca dose on August 7, cancelled his second vaccine booking last week as he was unwell. He is rebooked for next week.
One Nation MP Stephen Andrew did not respond to our questions about his vaccination status, saying it was a private health matter.
The Mirani MP, in the Mackay region, has posted extensively on social media about his opposition to mandatory vaccination, likening public health restrictions imposed during the pandemic to “coercive control” – a form of domestic abuse.
These One Nation folk never seem to miss with their clumsy rhetoric.
In a statement, his electorate office said “Stephen does not speak about his medical status in the office – it is between him and his doctor. Stephen respects people’s privacy and wants to preserve and protect freedom of choice”.
First Elvis, now Kenny
Jarrod Bleijie has more front than … well, Dolly Parton.
After dazzling colleagues with a hip-swivelling Elvis impersonation at former leader Deb Frecklington’s 50th birthday party in September, the Bleijie was back on stage at the LNP convention in Gladstone last weekend.
The state’s former attorney general, with a coveted selection of pocket squares, could not stay away from the microphone, when a Dolly Parton impersonator took to the stage.
Channelling the great Kenny Rogers, Bleijie jumped on stage and sang the male part of “Islands In the Stream” to his adoring fans including LNP president Lawrence Springborg, federal senator James McGrath and state frontbenchers Ros Bates and Tim Mander.
Will leave it you to watch, and spot the impersonator.
Lovely spam, wonderful spam
It’s not over until it’s over.
The federal government may be considering legislation to stop text message spamming from politicians, but that hasn’t stopped federal MP, NSW Liberal defector Craig Kelly.
Clive Palmer’s political Man Friday keeps sending out uninvited texts to the mostly uninterested across Australia.
The Chooks were among those who received a text on Tuesday from Kelly and the United Australia Party, the party that the billionaire has set-up and funds with his millions.
It links to a video of a protester decrying the media and ranting about the lack of coverage of adverse reactions to Covid-19 vaccines the vaccines’ supposed failures.
“The system is not breaking, it’s broken,” the unnamed woman says above a line calling for new members to join the UAP.
Perhaps she could be referring to the system that allows politicians access to private phone numbers and the ability send propaganda on a mass scale.
Closed door review for regulator
After weeks of allegations about the building regulator, Public Works Minister Mick de Brenni has finally been muscled into ordering a review into the Queensland Building and Construction Commission.
But let’s be clear, this self-described act of good governance is a review and not an inquiry; so no public hearings for those alleging they have been victims of wrongful attention by a regulator.
Instead the review will be behind closed doors and headed by Jim Varghese, who is director of Springfield City Group and a former director-general in the Beattie Government.
The inquiry was called a day after applications closed for the top job as the QBCC commissioner.
No word on whether de Brenni – who has final say over who gets the gig – will wait for the findings of the review before appointing the new commissioner.
Varghese will report mid-next year.
Crisafulli’s night of the long knives looms for Labor luvvies
David Crisafulli is preparing to axe Labor luvvies from government boards, while Peter Dutton’s own MPs were kept in the dark on the federal Opposition Leader’s nuclear nuts and bolts.
Albo’s bloke faces battle for Blair
Will Anthony Albanese’s decision to save a Queensland MP from gender quotas come back to bite him, as the LNP prepare to preselect a woman to contest the federal seat? And who is state Labor’s new comrade in chief?