Feeding the Chooks: Albanese fronts ALP love-in, LNP to bag cash
Insiders have told Chooks the PM’s appearance is likely to be the highlight of the Queensland Labor love-in on the Sunshine Coast, which begins Friday night with a delegates’ dinner.
After all, it’s the first time a QLD Labor state conference has been addressed by a prime minister in about a decade.
Annastacia Palaszczuk is also speaking on Saturday while Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers, the Logan City local who is Queensland’s most senior Labor MP in Canberra, will also make an appearance after an exhausting nationwide roadshow selling the budget.
The rest is shaping-up to be a bit of a snooze-fest.
Some MPs and ministers have talked about skipping the show, saying they won’t be missing much.
Both Albanese and Palaszczuk will be talking up the state’s renewable energy plan (a commitment to phase out coal-fired power in favour of renewable generation by 2035) and onlookers will be keen to know if Albo will commit federal cash to the state’s unfunded pumped hydro projects.
But it seems the clash of ideas that sometimes lights up a party’s conference and, reminds all involved of the fun and fire of politics, has been taken off the agenda.
Hopes of a showdown, even a little niggle, between the Left faction (which has the outright majority of delegates) and the once-dominant Right have been dashed with the more contentious motions negotiated behind closed doors.
It’s why most heading to Twin Waters are more looking forward to taking a dip, and then catching up on some sleep when they hit the conference floor.
Chooks hears a particular spicy motion to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 has been withdrawn.
It is a pity, because debate on youth crime is one of the most fiery topics within Queensland Labor, after energy policy.
While the majority of Australia’s Attorneys-General are poised to lift the minimum age from 10 to 12, there is a growing push to go to 14.
Some think locking up tweens won’t do anything to fix youth justice issues.
Others think appearing to go soft on young crims will destroy Labor’s hopes of securing must-win north Queensland seats, particularly in Townsville where youth carjacking is rife.
Another interesting motion on drug law reform was also negotiated ahead of the conference and will not be debated, Chooks has been told.
Telephone polling conducted by Ucomms in September got tongues wagging, after respondents were quizzed on whether people found in possession of a small quantity of marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin and ecstasy should be jailed (or not).
The ACT last month became the first Australian jurisdiction to decriminalise illicit drugs – such as cocaine and heroin, in small quantities for personal use.
In response, Palaszczuk said: “Let me make it very clear, that will not be happening in Queensland.”
Decriminalising drugs for personal use – recommended by the state’s Productivity Commission a few years ago – has strong support in Labor’s Left.
CRISAFULLI CASH-FOR-ACCESS
With the Liberal National Party rich in assets and relatively cash poor, it is no wonder that the state opposition are reluctant to join Labor and its ban on cash-for access fundraisers.
Opposition leader David Crisafulli and his frontbench have confirmed they will continue to participate in cash-for-access fundraisers if they win government, despite planning to fight the next state election on a platform of integrity.
But the former Townsville MP, now Gold Coast-based leader, says he will allow political donors to pay to meet with him and his frontbench, a practice previously condemned by corruption-fighter Tony Fitzgerald.
“We will comply with the law and make sure everything is declared,” Crisafulli told Chooks
He said the LNP did not have the backing of big-spending unions and his party had been hamstrung by new donation caps.
“We have to raise money to take on 26 registered unions,” he said.
Since July, political donors in Queensland can only donate a total of $4000 to a political party and $6000 to candidates of the same party until after the next election in 2024.
Third-party organisations, such as unions and industry lobby groups like the Queensland Resources Council, will still be able to spend up to $1m running a campaign during an election period.
When the donation caps came in, Palaszczuk banned her frontbench from holding cash-for-access events in the state.
Don’t be fooled by Labor’s new-found stance; the Bligh and Palaszczuk governments’ practised and perfected the fundraising device.
Palaszczuk and her ministers even held a two-day business forum last year, where they made corporate donors pay for meetings with the cabinet in the middle of the working week.
More than 60 companies including miners, banks, lobbyists and bookies paid a combined half-a-million dollars for the pleasure of attending a cocktail party and a day of meetings with Palaszczuk and co.
Coffers topped up – thanks to that event and cashed-up union backers – the Palaszczuk government instituted new donor caps and piously stopped the cash-for-access grift they’ve been running for close to two decades.
Queensland Labor has not scrapped cash-for-access events at a local or federal government level.
SKY’S THE LIMIT
The LNP’s first cash-for-access event since the donation caps came into force has been postponed until early next year.
It was billed as a “landmark” event at the Brisbane airport convention centre, and a chance for backers to pay for the chance to schmooze with federal leaders Peter Dutton and David Littleproud, as well as Crisafulli and his state shadow cabinet.
The LNP MPs, senators and councillors had planned to take a day off work on November 16 to network, hold roundtables, and help fill the party coffers.
“The day will be your opportunity to engage with Federal Shadow Ministries and State MPs, Senators and Councillors around key and pivotal issues for Queensland‘s present and future,” the marketing material says.
Donors were being asked to cough up $6600/head for a ticket to the all-day airport chatfest, as well as membership to the LNP’s QForum cash-for-access program in 2023, which would include six more events.
This complies with the donation cap, the LNP says, because it’s not a political donation for election purposes and would instead be used to run the party.
But the fundraiser has been postponed until early next year due to the illness of key staff members at LNP HQ.
DEJA VU
A strong sense of deja vu washed over Queensland’s press gallery on Friday when Annastacia Palaszczuk and Education Minister Grace Grace opened Nirimba State Primary School.
That was because Palaszczuk and Grace held a press conference at Sunshine Coast-based school on February 2, three days before the it actually opened.
SPOTTED
Chooks noticed David Crisafulli has a new disclaimer on his official diary.
After being roasted by Labor for appearing to have not held a shadow cabinet meeting all year, his diary now says: “Please note: Shadow Cabinet meetings occur during every parliamentary sitting week”.
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Anthony Albanese may have the smallest number of MPs from Queensland of any federal government since 1906, but the Labor Prime Minister will have plenty of support when he delivers the keynote speech at Labor’s state conference on Saturday.