Annastacia Palaszczuk refresh by a frontbench reshuffle
Annastacia Palaszczuk will announce a reshuffle of her frontbench this week in a bid to refresh her third-term government ahead of next year’s Queensland election.
Annastacia Palaszczuk will announce a reshuffle of her frontbench this week in a bid to refresh her third-term government ahead of next year’s state election.
Senior government sources confirmed to The Australian on Tuesday night that there would be a cabinet reshuffle this week, expected as early Thursday.
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath, who met with Ms Palaszczuk on Tuesday afternoon for about 30 minutes, is expected to be moved from her portfolio, which she has held since the 2020 election.
Ms D’Ath, one of the Premier’s closest Right-faction allies, has been under increasing pressure over ambulance ramping, surgical waitlists and the closure of regional maternity wards.
Government insiders say the reshuffle is necessary to combat Opposition Leader David Crisafulli success in prosecuting youth crime and health issues.
The final cabinet make-up has not been finalised, but The Australian understands Left faction’s Leeanne Enoch will lose responsibility for housing. Housing has become a major issue for the government with rents rising faster in Queensland than in any other Australian jurisdiction.
The Greens have been ramping up pressure on the state over its failures to build enough social homes to keep up with the growing demand.
Surging Greens support at successive state and federal elections has put crucial inner-Brisbane Labor seats, including McConnel and Bulimba, in jeopardy at the October 2024 state election.
The impending reshuffle comes as Ms Palaszczuk, who has increased Labor’s seat count at three successive elections, suffers her worst poll numbers since taking power in 2015.
A YouGov poll, commissioned by The Courier Mail in late April, suggests Labor is now on track to lose government when it faces voters in October next year.
On the eve of the 2020 election, 48 per cent of voters put Ms Palaszczuk as their preferred premier, but that has sunk after a series of integrity scandals and perceived failing on youth crime, housing and health.
Now only 31 per cent of voters rate Ms Palaszczuk as preferred premier – worse than what both Anna Bligh and Campbell Newman garnered before they lost elections.
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