Annastacia Palaszczuk staffer quits federal role

Federal Labor assistant secretary Jon Persley will quit to become Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s deputy chief of staff.

Federal Labor assistant secretary Jon Persley. Picture: Annette Dew

Federal Labor assistant secretary Jon Persley will quit his national role to become Queensland ­Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s deputy chief of staff.

Brisbane-based Mr Persley — a former adviser to then federal opposition leader Bill Shorten and former treasurer Wayne Swan — served as Ms Palaszczuk’s director of government strategy before being appointed to the federal job in June.

The Right faction powerbrok­er and close confidante of Ms Palaszczuk will work with the Premier’s chief of staff Jim Murphy, a former under-treasurer, who will remain in the top job for now.

Mr Persley declined to comment. The Australian understands the appointment will take effect from the middle of next month, and comes after Ms Palaszczuk appointed former Labor MP and KPMG partner Mike Kaiser as acting director-general of the state’s Resources Department.

Newgate Australia partner John Lee, a former director-general­ of the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet, was last week appointed Tourism Department acting director-general.

Mr Lee and Mr Kaiser — through Newgate and KPMG — received lucrative contracts from the Palaszczuk government in its previous term.

Following Ms Palaszczuk’s resounding victory at the October 31 election — when she increased her majority from 48 to 52 seats in Queensland’s 93-electorate single house — Governor Paul de Jersey officially reopened parliament on Wednesday.

According to tradition, Mr de Jersey delivered a speech on behalf­ of the Premier, outlining in her words her priorities for the state’s first fixed four-year term, including a surprise vow to crim­inalise coercive control as a form of domestic and family violence.

“The new Attorney-General will again have a heavy legislative workload, with commitments to reintroduce the Criminal Code (Consent and Mistake of Fact) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill and to legislate against coercive control as a form of domestic and family violence,” the Governor said.

Some anti-domestic violence advocates and legal experts were disappointed last month when the government said it would legislate against coercive control — a dangerous pattern of intimidation and humiliation that is considered a “red flag” for murder — which was interpreted by the sector as a step below criminalisation.

The government had promised to provide extra training for police, first responders, and domestic violence­ case workers. It was thought legislative changes would only be to civil laws, rather than making the behaviour a criminal offence.

But asked to clarify on Wednesday what “legislate” meant, a spokeswoman for new Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman said: “We will legislate to criminalise coercive control as a form of DV”.

Women’s Legal Service Queensland chief executive Ang­ela Lynch, who has been lobbying for months for criminalisation, said it appeared to be “a step forward”. “That’s fantastic, we would be supportive … and we look forward­ to participating in consult­ation,” Ms Lynch said.

Mr de Jersey also repeated Ms Palaszczuk’s election promise to legalise voluntary assisted dying after she receives a fast-tracked report­ from the Queensland Law Reform Commission on the proposed­ law change.