Feeding the Chooks: Scott Morrison, Anthony Albanese lose heads to Greens punk Emerald Moon
It’s usually The Greens losing their heads over anything that might cross the ever-advancing line of political correctness.
But the Chooks reckon we can see some trouble on the way for an emerging star, or should we say, a moon on the rise in the party in Queensland.
Political staffer Emerald Moon – her parents were hippies in NSW – does media, communication and community engagement for Greens state MP Michael Berkman and is on the party’s campaign committee for the next federal election.
A former Greens candidate, who ran against federal Liberal MP Andrew Laming in 2019, she was also moonlighting at the time as the lead singer of the now-defunct punk band Class War.
Chooks has been sent a copy of the cover of the band’s 2019 demo album, which depicts Moon using a guillotine to lop off the head of someone who looks remarkably like Labor leader Anthony Albanese.
Already in the basket are the heads of Scott Morrison and, possibly, Peter Dutton and maybe, One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts.
Moon was a little coy when first contacted, initially saying “it could be Scott Morrison, it could be Albanese” before that youthful righteousness kicked in and she confirmed it was the PM and probably Albanese grimacing under the blade, although she couldn’t be sure because the drawing wasn't good.
“It does looks like him, Albanese, but it doesn’t,’’ she said, maybe also hedging in case she is involved in preference negotiations with Labor.
“I got a friend in Canada to do the drawing. I told him I wanted the politicians and well, suits … (and when asked what that meant), you know, wealthy men.”
In this era of outrage, it would be easy to condemn the appropriateness of a young Greens staffer, on the public payroll, commissioning ugly attacks like this. And so, we will. Her side would.
But in her own defence, Moon says it had nothing to do with the Greens and was, after all, the cover of a punk record.
A bit to chew on watchdog’s future
They say a week in politics is a long time but just a few days might be all it takes to spare Crime and Corruption Commission boss Alan MacSporran from, well, the proverbial guillotine.
The Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee this year held a public inquiry into MacSporran and the CCC’s failed prosecution of the mayor and seven councillors of Logan City over their decision to sack its CEO.
On the last day of hearings, counsel assisting Jonathon Horton QC recommended the PCCC consider putting MacSporran’s termination to a vote in parliament when it delivered its report.
The PCCC was supposed to hand down the report on Tuesday – plenty of time to debate and vote – but in a surprise, it changed the scheduled delivery of its findings until Thursday, the final parliamentary sitting day of the year.
Whispers are that the bipartisan committee – headed by LNP frontbencher Jon Krause – has been divided on what to do with Labor MPs not wanting to sack MacSporran.
Might explain the PCCC’s move to book out rooms at parliament for three “private meetings” on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Krause was seen in the parliamentary canteen on Monday, ahead of the LNP party room meeting, carrying a “draft” report.
MacSporran’s critics have been waiting with bated breath and some were sceptical this week about what the committee’s delay might mean.
“Convenient timing for the government,” one LNP MP told the Chooks.
The next sitting day is in February and, by then, the heat over MacSporran and the CCC may have cooled.
MacSporran has fiercely defended his actions and his organisation’s investigation, so it appears to be unlikely he will walk of his own volition.
Education Minister scores a fail
Steven Miles sank the boot into the media last week, somehow blaming the fourth estate for the much-to-do-about-nothing saga about $150 Covid tests for border crosses.
The confusion was, in fact, created by Health Minister Yvette D’Ath and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
They just didn’t quite understand that the agreement they had already signed over the state-federal funding for the tests meant the taxpayer and not the person being tested got the bill.
Since then, the Premier has only done a brief doorstop before the caucus meeting on Monday.
On Tuesday morning, Palaszczuk broke the news on the floor of parliament that Queensland’s 110,000 teachers would be ordered to get the Covid-19 jab before school resumes next year.
It was live-streamed to her 318,000 Facebook followers.
After announcing the mandate, the offices of Palaszczuk and Education Minister Grace Grace said they were too busy to front journalists and answer questions.
But following protests from the parliamentary media gallery, Grace found a few minutes to later face reporters but was unable to say whether unvaccinated school workers would be sacked or just redeployed within the department.
“Everything is on the table,” she repeated several times.
The state is unsure how many teachers, aides and school coaches are unvaccinated and whether there will be staff shortages in the New Year.
The Queensland Teachers’ Union says it warned the education department the January 23 jab deadline could “result in significant disruption to the commencement of the 2022 school year given students are due to return to schools the following day”.
Queensland is the last mainland jurisdiction to extend the mandate to schools.
Some have speculated that the apparent slowness of the state to mandate teachers – after going earlier with health staff and police – might have something to do with the reach of former Queensland Teachers’ Union secretary John Battams.
Now the ALP state president, the former QTU state secretary of 21 years is very close to Palaszczuk, who turned to him in the early years of government for advice.
Back then, the issues were a bit easier, with the government focused on rehiring sacked public servants rather than issuing them with career-ending directives.
Over the limit
Chooks told you last month of the drink-driving charge against Matt Burnett, the Gladstone mayor and Labor candidate who is hoping to wrest the federal seat of Flynn off the Nationals with the retirement of Ken O’Dowd.
The update is that Burnett, 47, who was charged with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.05 per cent, pleaded guilty last week, got a $400 fine and had his licence suspended for a month.
Burnett was at the Under the Trees music festival when he said he drank three Great Northern beers and thought he was good to go.
Now that the election isn’t until next year, Burnett will be able to drive those vast distance in the sprawling electorate.
The other good news is that when Chooks called with questions, it was a staffer from the ALP who called back.
Last time we called Burnett, it was a staffer from Labor Senator Murray Watt’s office who called back doing the mayor’s media, which is a clear misuse of federal parliament rules.
Wharton denies assault
Speaking of mayor’s misbehaving, long-time north Queensland mayor John Wharton is due for a date with the local magistrate on Wednesday to face two charges of common assault and one of creating a disturbance in a licensed premises.
Wharton, who was first elected as a Richmond councillor in 1991 and became mayor in 1997, is accused of assaulting two female security guards at the annual Richmond Bush Sprints horse racing event in August.
The 68-year-old told Chooks he would “definitely be defending” the charges in the Richmond Magistrates Court.
A former candidate for the state seat of Mt Isa, Wharton was a member of the LNP but quit six months after he was suspended over public comments he made about the party’s failure to appeal to voters in central and north Queensland in that year’s state election.
There has been a spate of charges against mayors and MPs of late, so we wait to see if Wharton really has a case to answer for.
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?