Sarah Elks
Labor Senate stoush: Casino lobbyist to take on Kate Jones
G’day readers and welcome to the latest edition of Feeding the Chooks, your weekly insight into what’s really going on in Queensland politics.
Mulholland vs. Jones
There’s nothing like the threat of Kate Jonesbeing catapulted onto Labor’s Senate ticket – with the backing of ALP powerbroker, Left faction boss, and Steven Miles’s mentor Gary Bullock – to finally kick Queensland’s Right faction into action.
Five years after Senator Chris Ketter – formerly the boss of the Right’s powerful shoppies’ union – lost the spot, the faction has at last settled on a candidate to contest the position: none other than Corinne Mulholland, in-house lobbyist for arguably Australia’s worst corporate citizen, casino giant Star Entertainment.
Chooks readers will recall the company was fined $100m in late 2022 and found to be unfit to hold its three casino licences in Queensland and NSW, after a string of serious allegations including money laundering, organised crime, and fraud. It is now facing a second independent inquiry in NSW, headed by Adam Bell SC.
Mulholland is no stranger to Labor politics, unsuccessfully contesting the marginal federal seat of Petrie for the ALP in 2019, and later being elected to Labor’s federal policy body.
So if Mulholland is the Right’s pick, is Jones (a member of the teeny-tiny Left-aligned Old Guard faction) still in the running?
The former Palaszczuk government minister and current Australian Rugby League commissioner declined to comment to Chooks, but as one senior Labor insider speculates: “Decades of (factional) stability is not going to be put at risk just because Kate Jones has the notion that she’d like to be a senator”.
Senator sues
It was silks at ten paces in Brisbane’s Supreme Court on Friday for a hearing into legal action taken by Queensland senator Gerard Rennick after he was booted off the Liberal National Party senate ticket for the next federal election.
The first-term senator last July lost his number three spot on the ticket to party treasurerStuart Fraser by just three votes.
As Chooks previously revealed there have been allegations of “voting irregularities,” including that LNP members not eligible to vote were allowed to cast a ballot and others, specifically federal Opposition leader Peter Dutton, being refused a request to send a representative to vote on his behalf despite the party Constitution saying he had every right to do so.
The court heard at least two LNP members ineligible to participate in the preselection were wrongly allowed to vote, and that there were serious questions about others who participated in the ballot.
Chooks understands the two ineligible voters backed Fraser, and Dutton supported Rennick, so by our count, the ballot would have been at least tied.
But the court heard that an internal probe ruled that because Rennick had not objected on the day to the make-up of the preselection body, his appeal for a new ballot should not be allowed.
It was a decision backed by the LNP state executive.
You have to ask how Rennick could have objected when he would have no way of knowing about the bona fides of all those voting.
Rennick later sought to appeal to the LNP’s State Council but it was ruled that he was out of time because he didn’t file his more substantive case until April.
And that’s where it gets even more interesting.
Rennick’s barrister, Michael Stewart KC, told the court that the party was to blame for the delay that they are now using to block the senator’s attempts to be heard.
“There is a considerable body of conduct engaged in by the state executive, its lawyers and leader of the state executive, its president Lawrence Springborg, that all contributed to the delay that has occurred.”
Stewart said the evidence – contained in submissions yet to be publicly released under new statewide court rules – would show that the ballot was a mess.
“Much of the evidence relied upon by the senator paints a picture of a state council meeting which was run in an unprofessional manner,” he said.
Justice Glenn Martin is considering his decision.
Chooks wonders how much of donors’ dosh the LNP is spending on legal fights.
Along with the Rennick matter, the LNP is facing a defamation trial from former Liberal councillor Kate Richards that has already done a few rounds in the courts.
Cross words
In an effort to score political points, has Health Minister Shannon Fentiman overegged her attack on her LNP opposite number over the government’s ailing maternity services?
Chooks is reluctant to wade into one of the most unedifying episodes in recent parliamentary history, but here goes. It began on Tuesday, when Fentiman was questioned by the LNP about the closure of maternity services in state-run hospitals.
Heckling from LNP members across the chamber asked Fentiman what she would tell expectant mothers, with Deputy Leader Jarrod Bleijie interjecting: “Hold the birth for a couple of months”.
Fentiman said: “If I can get a word in, Mr Speaker, can I say that all of those mums—“
Then health spokeswoman Ros Bates called: “Cross your legs”. Fentiman stopped, looked shocked, and Speaker Curtis Pitt warned Bates under standing orders and asked her to withdraw the comment, which she did.
Chooks has spoken to non-political observers who watched the entire exchange, who say Bates was clearly implying that the government expected pregnant mothers to “cross their legs” to delay labour.
The government swiftly cut a short video of the incident – leaving out the maternity debate context – and misquoted Bates as saying “close your legs”. It went viral, and was interpreted as Bates hurling an insult directly at Fentiman.
Now, Bates has a history of aiming barbs in parliament, especially at Fentiman. But the video – which eventually was reposted with the correct “cross your legs” quote but still without context – unleashed forces the Health Minister and the government could not control.
During a week in which Premier Steven Miles banged on about the danger social media poses to children, trolls bombarded the Gold Coast MP’s office and Bates’s own social media channels with atrocious language, including weaponising her history as a victim of childhood domestic abuse.
“Clearly your abuser didn’t beat enough common sense into you,” one said.
Miles leapt into the fray on Friday morning, calling Bates “one of the nastiest people in Queensland parliament”. “Ros Bates consistently says awful things. She says terrible things all the time. And I think now Queenslanders are starting to see that, it’s about time she changed her behaviour.”
Bates had “pleaded” with Fentiman in parliament to remove the videos, but it was only after a request from Speaker Curtis Pitt – who is considering whether to refer Fentiman to the Ethics Committee for contempt of parliament, and is also assessing complaints against Bates – that she took down the clips on Friday afternoon.
“As the Health Minister respects parliamentary proceedings, all posts have been removed,” Fentiman’s office says.
It shouldn’t be too much to expect that politicians – of all political persuasions – attempt at least a little respect for each other, as well as parliamentary proceedings, even in an election year.
Do better.
Howard’s End
Chooks can reveal state MP and Queensland Assistant Treasurer Jen Howard has withdrawn her expression of interest to challenge sitting federal Labor MP Shayne Neumann for preselection in his seat of Blair, after Anthony Albanese declared his public support for Neumann.
Howard was keen to use Labor’s strict affirmative action quotas – which technically should see Neumann and fellow federal MP Graham Perrett booted at the next election for women candidates – and lodged the EOI, which sparked much mayhem.
But when contacted by Chooks, Howard confirmed she had withdrawn as a result of the PM’s intervention.
“The PM has made it clear he wants to support the incumbent so a preselection process won’t unfold,” Howard says.
“I’ve been overwhelmed by the support from Ipswich people in general, including some surprising quarters from the branch base, but I accept the PM’s decision and will continue to focus 100 per cent on Ipswich and winning the next state election.”
So what does this mean for Perrett, who had been widely predicted to step aside for former ALP state secretary, Julie-Ann Campbell, in his seat of Moreton? Has he been emboldened by Albanese’s intervention on behalf of his fellow QLD bloke, Neumann?
He tells Chooks: “I intend to nominate but fully understand my party’s commitment to affirmative action (that I wholeheartedly support)”.
Clear as mud.
‘Tis the season
The smell of ambition and skulduggery is thick in the air as Labor’s preselection season dawns on Queensland.
With the kerfuffle over the second Senate seat dragging on and the Blair Switch Project only recently kiboshed, it’s a relief to discover there are more contested preselections on the horizon.
The once-safe ALP seat of Griffith – which Kevin Rudd held for 15 years – is up for grabs with Terri Butler busy with new job with Queensland’s industrial umpire.
Butler lost the seat to Greens dynamo Max Chandler-Mather at the 2022 election and Labor is determined to snatch it back.
As Chooks has previously reported, Old Guard’s Renée Coffey (a “proud” member of kingmaker Gary Bullock’s United Workers Union) will throw her hat in the ring, writing to branch members in March to tell them she believed she could win the seat back.
But Coffey isn’t the only one with big plans for Griffith. This week Labor’s powerful Left faction endorsed scientist Katie Havelberg as their candidate for the seat.
Havelberg, who works for the health department as a policy adviser, is also the national president of Professionals Australia (a union for professionals). It will be up to Griffith branch members to decide who will triumph as the ALP’s candidate.
And Chooks also hears there are moves afoot to install failed Labor lord mayoral candidate Tracey Price as the Left’s candidate in Griffith.
Old Guarder Madonna Jarrett is apparently keen to have another crack at the seat after losing to Greens Stephen Bates in 2022.
Held by Labor for 30 years, veteran MP Arch Bevis lost Brisbane to the LNP in 2010 and none of the Old Guard candidates (Fiona McNamara, Pat O’Neill, Paul Newbury and Jarrett) have been able to take it back since.
Is it time for a Leftie to have a go?
Katter for premier?
There are perennial debates in Queensland politics that are as predictable as arguments about daylight saving confusing cows and fading curtains. This parliamentary sitting week, the Katter’s Australian Party push to declare north Queensland a separate state rolled around – again.
As Katter MP Shane Knuth noted in his speech, the separatist movement is not new. The Queensland Labor member for Rockhampton William Kidston first moved a motion for a referendum for the separation of northern and central Queensland colonies 128 years ago.
Only the three Katter MPs – Knuth, Traeger's Robbie Katter and Hinchinbrook’s Nick Dametto – voted in favour of separation along with One Nation MP Steve Andrew.
While the Katter’s motion failed (as it did in 2016), the 30-minute debate on Wednesday afternoon was entertaining, nevertheless.
Labor’s Cairns MP Michael Healy – in a tough position, speaking against the motion even as a far north Queenslander – said he understood the reasoning but “maybe now is not the time” before going on to flatter the Katter boys.
“I would love to see the member for Traeger as Premier. I think he would make a great premier. He is well dressed. He presents well. He is passionate,” he said.
“I can see the member for Hill as the treasurer. He would be a fantastic treasurer. I can see the member for Hinchinbrook as the Attorney-General and police minister.”
Presumably Healy was picturing the Katter’s Australian Party MPs holding these positions of power in a mythical North Queensland state, rather than after the next Queensland election.
Not so hot property
The actual Premier of Queensland (that’s north, south, east and west Queensland, for those in the Katter’s Australian Party) Steven Miles fronted a Property Council lunch on Friday at the Brisbane convention centre at South Bank, and apparently you couldn’t give the tickets away.
About 230 industry professionals paid $200-a-head to listen to Miles rehash the state’s recent housing plan and announce the guidelines for its infill incentive, hoped to entice developers to make the most of land in the city.
The lunch – also attended by the Miles’s director-general Mike Kaiser and Queensland government architect Leah Lang – was supposed to be in April. But Miles cancelled at the last minute to make an announcement about police helicopters in Townsville.
Despite the longer lead time, a number of observers revealed Miles was still rehearsing his speech as guests arrived.
Chooks hears David Crisafulli’s lunch in July is in higher demand, with industry insiders predicting the crowd numbers for the Opposition leader’s event were on track to eclipse 400.
Queensland: Beautiful one day, Slovenia the next
LNP MPs have bombarded their social media channels with glossy ads attacking Labor for a so-called “patients’ tax” that the Opposition says leaves Queenslanders paying more for health than any other state. The ads feature concerned looking patients, apparently talking to medical staff in a waiting room or corridor.
There’s just one little hiccup. The pictured patients are not Queenslanders. In fact, they’re not even Australians.
Chooks has tracked the image and found it originated from a Slovenian stock footage company called SimonKr, which discloses that the photograph’s location is Slovenia and it was uploaded to iStock in April 2018.
Asked about the photo’s origins, an LNP spokeswoman tells Chooks: “So Labor’s priority is trawling through stock photos used routinely by political parties for backgrounds instead of dealing with the big number on the front of it that shows healthcare is more expensive for Queenslanders, at a time the Labor Party has caused the worst ambulance ramping in history which, as we learned this week, has cost multiple Queenslanders their lives”.
Overheard
Queensland’s pollies officially moved into their newly renovated digs above parliament this week and by all reports were quite chuffed with the strong water pressure in the showers, comfy beds, and (for a lucky few) river views.
But one MP was apparently aghast to discover that the cost of living crisis had finally made its way to the hallowed halls of state parliament.
One of our spies overheard the MP whinging to parliamentary staff about the mark-up on wine being delivered up their new room in the revamped parliamentary annexe.
Chooks has kindly chosen not to name the thirsty pollie as we did not overhear the exchange ourselves. We trust they enjoyed their drop.
Spotted #1
An intimate soiree was thrown in honour of former Beattie government minister Steve Bredhauer on Wednesday evening in the parliament’s billiard room.
Bredhauer – who served as Cook MP from 1989 to 2004 – was receiving a life membership to the ALP.
Guests included union boss Gary Bullock, ALP state secretary Kate Flanders, former South Brisbane MP Anne Warner (who was succeeded in the seat by Anna Bligh and Jackie Trad), federal minister Murray Watt and Premier Steven Miles.
Spotted #2
A contingent of officials from the Australian Workers’ Union descended on parliament this week for a series of meetings with key crossbenchers. This of course piqued the interest of our spies, but Chooks can report the meetings were to lobby for support over the union’s new campaign to get more security guards in public hospitals.
The AWU is one of 16 organisations to have officially registered as third-parties ahead of the October 26 state election. Half are unions, but there’s also the Master Builders Association, the Queensland Hotels Assocation, GetUp, the Local Government Association, the Australian Christian Lobby, the Lock the Gate Alliance, the Queensland Resources Council, and mining billionaire Chris Wallin’s Energy Resources Queensland.
Under the state’s electoral spending laws, third-parties can spend up to $1m on a statewide campaign in the lead up to the poll.
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