It only took Annastacia Palaszczuk the promise of a $5bn project to take the heat off her government’s youth crime woes for a few days.
While numbers are rubbery, the commitment to fund and build the CopperString electricity transmission line in north Queensland has been celebrated across the state’s north.
It was a welcome reprieve for Palaszczuk’s team of spinners with youth crime dominating the news cycle over summer and resurfacing as a major political issue for the government.
Home to a trio of must-win seats, public anger has been bubbling away in Townsville for years as recidivist youths steal cars and break into homes.
In a bid to show voters they are tough on crime, the government announced a suite of reforms which will see more kids put behind bars.
The laws, to be debated in state parliament next week, have been widely criticised by former judges, criminologists, lawyers and youth advocates.
One of Palaszczuk’s own backbenchers, Jonty Bush, also had a few things to say in a written submission to the committee examining the bill.
Bush, who holds the affluent seat of Cooper in Brisbane’s western suburbs and is under threat from the Greens said: “We want responses that will actually drive down criminal offending over a life-course.
“It’s crucial that the Queensland Government remain committed to prioritising criminal justice policies and programs which have or draw from an evidence base of what works,” said Bush, the former head of the state’s Homicide Victims’ Support Group.
Chooks hears there are a few caucus members with misgivings about the youth crime crackdown, but none have been brave enough as Bush to go public with their views.
NEWMAN TAKES THE SPOTLIGHT
Who needs political enemies when you have (former) friends like Campbell Newman.
Blood was boiling across the senior ranks of the LNP at the party’s weekend state council meeting in the youth crime hot spot of Townsville.
Leader David Crisafulli, who once held the seat of Mundingburra, was out to prove to his old home town that he was their answer to crime.
Crisafulli should have been shining in his old stomping ground, but his thunder was stolen by a certain ex-premier who was splashed across the front page of the Sunday Mail.
Newman, who also featured in a Sky News crime special on Sunday night, said he was more worried about his safety now than when we went to war with the bikies 10 years ago.
No Longer a member of the LNP after quitting in 2021, Newman also called on Palaszczuk to “get rid of the people running the current (judiciary) system”.
To make things worse for Crisafulli, who like any Opposition leader is desperate to build name recognition, Palaszczuk rolled into town with her cabinet the next day to announce $5bn CopperString to rave reviews.
SENATE SAVE THE DATE
Preselection dates for the LNP senate race have been set down for July 7 and rumours are flying left, right and centre about who is planning to have a crack at unseating a sitting senator.
The only credible challenger to Paul Scarr, who holds the No. 1 spot, is former senator Amanda Stoker, who has not declared her plans yet.
Stoker, a former assistant minister, lost her seat at the last election and this year began hosting a weekly Sky News program. It is unlikely Stoker would challenge Scarr unless she was confident she had the numbers.
Nationals Senator Susan MacDonald has the No. 2 position and is widely considered a shoo-in to retain.
That leaves a more-vulnerable Gerard Rennick in third. Rennick, who under party rules cannot talk about preselections because dates have been set, told Chooks a few weeks ago that he was expecting a fight.
“I don’t expect the party to protect me. I have always thought every sitting member should be scrutinised and if people want to run against me, they should,” he said in January.
Rennick attracted widespread criticism within his party for anti-vax views during the pandemic, but has a considerable social media profile compared with some of his colleagues.
As one LNP insider put it: “We need him to reel in those One Nation voters”.
Chooks has spoken to more than a dozen party insiders and these are the names flying around as potential Rennick challengers: Toowoomba councillor Rebecca Vonhoff, head of the LNP women’s committee Melina Morgan and Lib staffer-turned-lobbyist Nelson Savanh.
A source said: “People are still doing the rounds, doing the numbers. I think there are a few more yet to come out of the woodwork.”
FORREST FAVOURITE TO DETHRONE GREENS
On the topic of preselections, LNP legal adviser Maggie Forrest has snapped up a property in the Greens-held federal seat of Ryan.
Once a Liberal heartland, home to cabinet ministers, Ryan fell to the Greens in a massive 9.86 per cent swing to the minor party last year.
The seat had been won by the Coalition at every general election since 1972 until Greens candidate Elizabeth Watson-Brown snapped it up.
Forrest and her husband bought a $1.5m home in Chapel Hill (comfortably inside Ryan’s electorate boundaries) in August.
The purchase came after Forrest lost one of Australia’s most bitter preselection battles in Andrew Laming’s old bayside seat of Bowman in 2021.
Preselection dates are yet to be set for Ryan, but Forrest is said to be raring to go.
LORD OF THE RINGS
One of the most powerful men in Queensland, former Labor MP Mike Kaiser, has just become more powerful.
Despite dropping $31,350 to find someone to fill “one of the most important jobs in Queensland”, the State Development department is still struggling to find a permanent replacement for recently departed coordinator-general Toni Power.
Kaiser last month began temporarily “dual-hatting” in the role of coordinator-general while also serving as director-general of Deputy Premier Steven Miles’s Department of State Development.
What has become more interesting this week is the news that the state government has abandoned plans for an independent body to oversee the multi-billion dollar Olympics infrastructure spend.
This leaves Kaiser, the favourite to replace public service head Rachel Hunter later this year, with unprecedented control over the $2.7bn Gabba rebuild.
LOBO IN LIMBO
A brief update for our avid Chooks readers who are wondering what happened to the federal police investigation into former Liberal National Party candidate Vivian Lobo.
Lobo, the last-minute LNP candidate for the seat of Lilley at the last federal election, remains under investigation for allegedly lying about where he was living and providing a false address to the electoral commission.
The Australian Federal Police told Chooks this week: ”This matter is still under investigation. As such, it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.”
Lobo has previously said he would co-operate with police inquiries.
KING’S BET
Labor backbencher Ali King has bet $20,000 on herself winning her Pumicestone seat again at next year’s state election.
The bet came in the form of a donation into her own campaign, listed on the disclosure log as “candidate self-funding”.
Curiously the donation was listed as “non-political”.
A former staffer to Deputy Premier Steven Miles, King wrested the seat off the LNP at the 2020 pandemic election after winning over a large retiree population.
Now held on a 5.3 per cent margin, Pumicestone is one of 13 must-win seats for the LNP at the next election.
SPOTTED
CFMEU boss Michael Ravbar and his team can be spotted running the streets of Brisbane in tutus on Sunday.
Not known for tiptoeing around politics, Ravbar and the CFMEU-team are doing a fun run to raise cash for the Mater Chicks in Pink, which supports women with breast cancer.
Obviously many people would pay to see Ravbar in a tutu, and the union has already raised $19,000.
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