Jackie Trad blasts Robert Schwarten as Premier David Crisafulli reneges on first promise
G’day readers and welcome to the first Feeding the Chooks column since the election. Things might be changing inside 1 William Street, but Chooks will continue to bring the scrutiny and sass.
Rocky relationship
Former deputy premier Jackie Trad didn’t miss in sheeting home the blame to Beattie government minister Robert Schwarten of Labor’s seismic loss of the seat of Rockhampton.
The central Queensland seat was won by the LNP’s Donna Kirkland after being in Labor hands since the 1920s.
Schwarten, who held the seat until 2012, has often been accused of treating Rockhampton and its ALP branches like his personal fiefdom.
The veteran MP – who was this year accused by former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk of sending her abusive texts while she led the government – has had his heavy hand in every Labor preselection in the seat since quitting parliament.
And that included blocking Palaszczuk’s captain’s pick of the then Rocky mayor Margaret Strelow to run for Labor at the 2017 election.
It was an ugly preselection battle, and Strelow never forgot.
She ran as an independent (receiving 17.9 per cent of the primary vote) and directed her preferences away from Labor, helping the LNP over the line.
Trad, in her weekly podcast “Socially Democratic” with former ALP state secretary and lobbyist Evan Moorhead, said Labor’s loss of Rockhampton was “terrible” and singled-out “Schwarto” for special honours in the electoral disaster.
“One of the things with central Queensland, there were real problems locally in terms of the Labor community,’’ she said.
“And you had someone who was a very successful former member in Rob Schwarten coming out in the media and really talking down Labor chances, and it was almost like giving permission for Labor voters not to vote Labor.
”The problem is Margaret Strelow is a very popular individual.
“She ran against the Labor candidate (Craig Marshall) and directed preferences away from Labor and that is all about her enmity with Rob.
“So its that situation where toxicity of relationships has bled out into to the broader Labor brand.
“The lesson is disunity is death and it leads to these sorts of outcomes, and it is a real, real loss to Labor.”
Trad should be expecting a text from Schwarten any moment.
Broken promise
Despite the protestations of the newly elected premier, Chooks was right.
As we predicted on October 18, David Crisafulli went ahead and broke his first election promise less than a week after claiming victory.
In September he insisted Tim Nicholls would be his Attorney-General and Ros Bates would be Health Minister if the LNP won government. Just last week he declared: “The shadow cabinet I am taking to the election will be the cabinet after the election if we are elected to government”.
We remained sceptical of course, given we had heard for weeks that Bates was going to miss out on health, even though Crisafulli gave repeated assurances she would remain in the role. On Sunday afternoon we were told the pressure was mounting for Crisafulli to install Nicholls in health.
One of the opposition’s most effective attack dogs, Bates claimed the scalp of former health minister Yvette D’Ath with her forensic scrutiny of Labor’s failures in health.
But there was high-ranking concerns about whether she could manage the $30bn portfolio (perhaps unfairly given her success in opposition).
Crisafulli was busy trying to spin his broken promise on Friday: “Well, it’s the same 20 people … and that looks a lot like stability”.
He says Bates’s appointment to finance, employment and trade ministry was a “promotion”, with the registered nurse now in charge of selling Queensland as an investment destination. She also insists the move was her idea.
Steven Miles, who has been in hiding since his brutal election defeat on Saturday, was quick to chime in with a statement on Friday afternoon.
“David Crisafulli told Queenslanders during the election campaign that ‘when I say something, it will count for something’, at the first opportunity these words have turned out to be false.”
With a number of directors-general facing the axe on Friday afternoon, Crisafulli is hurtling towards his second broken promise.
As Opposition Leader, he pledged himself to a landmine provision in Peter Coaldrake’s public service review, vowing to employ state public service chiefs for fixed five-year terms.
It would have meant he was bound to director-generals appointed under the Palaszczuk-Miles administration.
The only wriggle room he gave at the time was his promise to sack Mike Kaiser, a former Labor MP and ALP state secretary.
Jimmy sized-problems
Next Tuesday, the Labor caucus will meet to divvy-up the spoils of last week’s resounding defeat and decide the frontbench.
All of the Labor MPs have yet to experience opposition; some might even have to get their own way to work instead of calling the ministerial driver. Poor things.
And while the leadership will remain unchanged – Steven Miles as leader, and Cameron Dick as deputy – the need for generational change is real, and the question is who will step up?
Of course, it also comes down to factional numbers.
Labor sources tells Chooks (if you leave out Aspley, which is still too close to call), the Left has 16 MPs, the Right has 13 and Old Guard has six.
Dick is having drinks at his house (still waiting for the invitation?!) tonight and who gets what will be on the dance card.
And then there is the question of Jimmy Sullivan.
Just days after he retained his north Brisbane seat of Stafford, Miles sent him on leave after police were called to his home on Sunday night.
“I have spoken to the Member for Stafford and I have directed him to take leave until his legal and medical matters have been resolved,’’ Miles said.
The 42-year-old former lawyer, who held his Brisbane seat of Stafford despite a swing against him, was not arrested or charged.
But he was spotted outside the Brisbane Magistrate’s Court on Thursday with his lawyer.
Numerous Labor colleagues have told Chooks they have been growing increasingly worried about Sullivan and “his relationship with alcohol”.
The wagons have circled Sullivan, whose father Terry once held the seat, to protect him in the face of mounting calls within the caucus and branches for him to go.
It certainly won’t have done his ambitions for the frontbench any good.
Attention turn
Now that the LNP have done the seemingly impossible and held it together long enough to win state government, party headquarters is turning to next year’s federal election.
Final vetting and endorsements (unless something comes up) for the LNP’s 20 federal MPs are likely to be done and dusted by Christmas.
And then the campaigning heats up.
Liberal senator James McGrath isn’t facing electors this time around but will play a big role in trying to maintain the dominance of the federal LNP wing in Queensland.
McGrath was on the LNP’s campaign committee, working alongside LNP director Ben Riley in strategy.
It’s what he does; having worked with Lynton Crosby on Boris Johnson’s successful 2008 London mayoral campaign and in a variety of campaigns in the Maldives and Sri Lanka.
The LNP is hoping to win back the federal seats of Ryan and Brisbane off the Greens, which lost one of their two seats, with South Brisbane likely to be returned to Labor.
And watch out veteran Labor MP Shayne Neumann – who was saved from a preselection challenge by Anthony Albanese – with the LNP targeting his seat of Blair.
Chooks has been told that the by-election win in Ipswich West in March – although lost last Saturday after LNP incumbent Darren Zanow retired because of ill health – has given the federal opposition some hope of defeating Neumann.
Punch-drunk bureaucrats
It was all smiles this week when newly minted premier David Crisafulli strode onto the front steps of Government House with his deputy Jarrod Bleijie and Her Excellency, Jeanette Young.
Before the full cabinet read their oaths on Friday, Crisafulli and Bleijie were sworn in by Young on Monday morning.
While the trio were inside enjoying a cup of tea, the Chooks were outside on the lawn of the Fernberg estate wondering if Young remembered some of the more unkind words Crisafulli had used to describe her in the past.
Back in the dark days of Covid-lockdown era, when Young was calling the shots with Palaszczuk as the state’s chief health officer, the now-Governor shut down an Anzac Day flyover.
Young canned the flyover over concerns about the virus spreading among spectators congregating to watch.
Crisafulli, the then shadow tourism minister, was pretty vocal with his opposition, telling radio broadcaster Alan Jones at the time: “When a decision is taken that has absolutely no connection with reality, you’ve got to stand up and call it for what it is”.
“This is punch-drunk bureaucrats who are power hungry and it needs to be called out.”
Lobbyists flock
And just like clockwork, when the government changes, so do the loyalties of lobbyists.
Chooks foreshadowed a few weeks back that Labor lobbyist Kirby Anderson was pre-emptively flirting with the conservative side of politics by bringing former Brisbane LNP Lord Mayor Graham Quirk on board at his firm PolicyWonks to burnish his blue credentials.
But Anderson – faithful lackey for two generations of Labor royalty: the former deputy chief of staff for Annastacia Palaszczuk and senior adviser for her father Henry Palaszczuk as primary industries minister – wasted no time after David Crisafulli ascended to shop around his “in” with the new Premier.
They’ve known each other for ages! Anderson told his LinkedIn followers. In fact, they were both baby journos together!
“I had the opportunity to know and work with David since his days as a journalist at Herbert River Express more than 20 years ago,” Anderson said, praising Crisafulli’s “gracious” victory speech and approach to the transition to power.
Chooks wonders how this flip-flopping will be viewed by the new government (and his old Labor comrades) – and Anderson’s current and prospective clients.
Spotted
It didn’t take long for Labor backbenchers Bruce Saunders and Craig Crawford to ditch their social media profiles after losing their seats last weekend, in a strong signal they both plan to leave politics behind for good.
Crawford was elected as Barron River MP in 2015 and served in Annastacia Palaszczuk’s cabinet, during which time he oversaw the historic Path to Treaty legislation as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships minister. He was demoted to the backbench when Steven Miles became premier in December.
Chooks caught up with Crawford on the phone on Thursday evening while he was busy enjoying a few beers and catching the sunset at Kurrimine Beach in north Queensland.
He says his Facebook account is “deactivated”, giving him the option to fire it up again down the track, should he wish.
“But I will probably end up deleting it … life goes on and I think I am done with politics,” he told Chooks.
“I am going to have a few months off then reassess where to go after Christmas.”
Saunders, who endured the shock loss of his Maryborough seat, did not call Chooks back.
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