“I’ve had a gutful,” Kate Jones declared, setting the scene for one of the most dramatic days in the five-year life of the Palaszczuk Labor government.
Jones’s bombshell departure will hurt Annastacia Palaszczuk far more than the other two Labor ministers — Anthony Lynham and Coralee O’Rourke — heading for the doors on the last day of parliament ahead of the October 31 election.
A totemic Labor figure, ousted from her inner-Brisbane seat in 2012 by Campbell Newman only to return the favour three years later to defeat the then premier, Jones has been the competent, retail politician of a government too often riven by division and indecision.
At a high-powered gathering in Brisbane’s CBD this year, Jones graphically demonstrated why she is regarded as one of the best communicators in Queensland Labor. She told the group she was leaving, she no longer wanted to serve a premier with whom there has been growing distrust, and could no longer stomach the influence of the unions and factions.
Jones spent most of this term on the sidelines as Commonwealth Games and tourism minister, with her ambitions for an economic portfolio blocked by the dominant Left faction as her own small Unity faction effectively sank beneath her.
It was only when Jackie Trad quit cabinet in May in the face of a corruption probe — after the then treasurer lost the support of union and Left faction boss Gary Bullock — that Jones was given the prize state development portfolio.
Jones had long been revered by tourism operators — and she retained responsibility for that crucial sector after her promotion — but increasingly faced the blowtorch of a sector crying out for Palaszczuk to open the borders after the COVID outbreak was contained in the state.
Inheriting Trad’s oversight of the $5.4bn Cross River Rail, she also became the target of a brutal CFMEU campaign to revisit the union’s exclusion from the project’s site agreement after it dealt itself out during initial negotiations. It is these same factors that Jones was facing that are a threat to the government’s re-election hopes.
The wipeout of Labor in Queensland at last year’s federal election was partly blamed on anger in the regions — already struggling before the pandemic — over the Left faction’s pandering to the Greens on issues such as Adani.
And while the Premier’s spinners have been touting confidence ahead of the October poll, there is mounting concern in Labor about the absolutism over the COVID lockdown.
The Premier is refusing to budge and it is clear that her campaign will be all about her government’s handling of COVID.
It’s a gamble that could lead Labor into opposition.
Labor to invest $573mn in female health
Improved access to birth control and treatments for UTIs, menopause and endometriosis will reform care for a health area ‘shrouded in shame and stigma’.
‘Unique’ AUKUS deal earns Trump approval
President Donald Trump has flagged his support for the complex defence arrangement with Australia after the Albanese government delivered a $798m payment.