Michael McKenna
Feeding the chooks: Palaszczuk one-ups Gladys with big pay bump; Crisafulli offloads one of his seven properties
G’day readers and welcome to just our second instalment of our new column covering the sitting days of the Queensland parliament.
Former premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen may be long gone, but some of you may remember his oft-repeated description of press conferences as “feeding the Chooks’’.
Since then, the phrase has lived-on as a challenge to Queensland’s political reporters to get behind the media releases and political spin and tell it like it really is.
This blog will give you an insight into the daily debate, legislation, party politics, gossip and goings-on in the corridors and backrooms of the 93-seat, unicameral parliament.
OWN GOAL
Some Labor MPs and staffers are aghast at the government’s decision to let a planeload of NRL wives and girlfriends jet into Queensland while locking-out the rest of the country.
The grumbling along the backbench and backrooms of parliament follows a day of outrage across the media, led by grieving families banned from coming from interstate to visiting the sick or farewell the recently departed.
One told Chooks it was a “stupid f …. g decision’’.
And while the government has spent more half a million dollars, and counting, secretly polling on every Covid-related decision, Deputy Premier Steven Miles didn’t wait for focus group research to concede it isn’t a great look.
Passing the political football (or grenade in this case) to chief health officer Jeannette Young, the deputy premier said the decision to let NRL families into the state was “a question of the health advice”.
“I understand the frustration of the public, I understand the optics of it, however they had a Covid-safe plan,” Miles said at a presser Wednesday morning, called to discuss a petition supporting the government’s voluntary assisted dying legislation.
“It did not add to the load of hotel quarantine, it did not displace any Queenslanders wanting to return.
“I understand the concerns people have comparing those two situations, but in this case it was a question of the health advice.”
SURF’S OUT
Opposition Leader David Crisafulli has sold his canal-front home in his Gold Coast electorate and traded-up to a high rise Brisbane apartment.
The Broadwater MP and wife Tegan sold their Hope Island property in April for $2.35m, and then forked out $745,000 for a two-bedroom pad just near the office in downtown Brisbane. Both properties settled in June.
The new Brisbane unit is just one of seven properties owned by the couple – all outside of the Gold Coast.
A former junior minister in the Newman government, who lost his Townsville based seat of Mundingburra MP after just one term, Crisafulli and his wife own five properties in the north Queensland city and one near his hometown of Ingham.
Crisafulli said family responsibilities – he has two kids – caused the change in living arrangements. The family now split their time between the apartment and a rental property down the coast.
“My family and I have work, school and sporting commitments in both cities and as a result we are maintaining a presence on both the Gold Coast and in Brisbane,” he said.
It is hard to ignore the good timing, with the current housing boom seeing the couple net a tidy $1m profit for the Hope Island home on the 2015 purchase price.
PAYDAY
And who can forget, even if the pollies want us to, that its payday!
From Wednesday (September 1), Queensland politicians will pocket the first of three pay rises to kick in over the next 12 months.
So, while the benchmark minimum wage across more than 100 awards in the private sector increases by 2.5 per cent (with workers also receiving a 0.5 per cent increase in super), Queensland’s political class will get a collective 6.5 per cent over the same period.
If you remember, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk last year magnanimously wrote to the “Queensland Independent Remuneration Tribunal” – which sets pollies wages – and with the support of the Opposition asked it to “put on hold” any pay rises for state MPs for the duration of the pandemic.
Her social media ads later promised “no pay rises for Queensland MPs until 2023”.
But about four months later, the Tribunal revisited the issue – and there was no reminder letter of the freeze from either side of politics.
The tribunal recommended a series of increases for MPs, starting with a 2 per cent hike on September 1, 2021, 2.25 per cent on March 1, 2022, and 2.5 per cent on September 1, 2022.
In March, when it was announced Palaszczuk said her hands were tied, adding it was a “matter for the remuneration tribunal.”
So, by September next year, Annastacia Palaszczuk’s salary will rise to $427,500. Palaszczuk’s pay rise will push her above NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who is on $407,980, and make her salary the second highest for premiers behind Victoria’s Daniel Andrews, who is on $441,439.
Opposition Leader David Crisafulli and cabinet ministers annual pay will be $350,000.
STACIA’S SOCIALS SENSATIONS
Annastacia Palaszczuk’s well-known “like” of social media has gone to a new platform.
Her army of media minders, photographers, videographers and social media advisers are now pushing the 52-year-old to the last remaining frontier, the youth-centric video platform of TikTok.
The minute-long video bursts often follow the same formula, sharing health advice embossed in shiny Palaszczuk branding.
They have gone hard on the platform since the state’s last lockdown, posting 42 videos since July 1 and growing her following to 7,946.
Her latest post, captioned “things that make me smile” (“doughnut days” 0 when there are no community infections, checking into venues, vaccines and her dog Winton), recorded 334k views in four days.
Palaszczuk seems to have followed the lead of Victorian Labor counterpart Dan Andrews, who has 89,000 TikTok followers, or Mark McGowan with 36,000, and not so much Peter Gutwein who has 1900 followers.
PLASTIC NOT-SO-FANTASTIC
Annastacia Palaszczuk, often heard chuckling at her own jokes and jibes, was left unimpressed with her speech writer’s pun on Wednesday morning.
From today, plastic straws, stirrers, cutlery plates and bowls will be thrown out for good in Queensland as part of the first tranche of bans on disposable plastic.
“It’s the final straw for a number of single-use plastics in Queensland,” Palaszczuk read from her script.
A sympathetic chortle from her frontbench followed.
“Who wrote that,” Palaszczuk scoffed, clearly hoping for less sucky puns.
GREENIES SEEING RED
Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon has upset her friends in the conservation lobby by applying a loose interpretation of the Palaszczuk government’s pledge to protect state forests.
The recent revelation that 6000 hectare Glen Rock State Forest would be added to the list appeared to be a big first step towards locking loggers out of the target 20,000 hectares of state forestry.
It meant the saws would fall silent hills and valleys of the picturesque plot in southeast Queensland.
The only problem was Glen Rock has never been set aside for logging and was only gazetted as a state forest in 2011.
Before that, in 1996, the former cattle station was purchased by the government for its protection and to be used by hikers, bikers and horseriders.
The move has irked conservation groups, who say other areas that would otherwise be protected are missing out.
Queensland Conservation Council spokesman Andrew Picone told the Chooks it was “disingenuous”.
“This land has never been scheduled or proposed for logging since it was purchased by the state back in 1996,” Picone said.
“QCC and our member groups won’t be accepting this as part of the 20,000 hectare commitment.”
Scanlon dodged questions about whether the move was disingenuous. Nor would she say how much of the 20,000 hectares promised had actually been protected.
BOLTON FROM THE BLUE
The WAGs arrival may explain why Labor-leaning independent MP for Noosa surfed in on the opposition’s push to extend debate on amendments to extend Dr Young’s powers.
LNP Manager of Opposition Business Jarrod Bleijie called for more time to debate the Bill, that essentially continues the sweeping powers given to Dr Young during the pandemic.
Bolton said her beachside community was bewildered by the WAGs exemption when so many businesses were struggling with tourists locked out.
“I may not get to tell their stories because with the business motion, allowing limited time, including the consideration in detail … I mightn’t get that opportunity,” she said.
SUPER MERGER
Laws to create Australia’s second largest superannuation fund were introduced to parliament this morning.
QSuper and Sunsuper this year signed an agreement to merge into one fund, controlling retirement benefits of 2 million Australians.
Treasurer Cameron Dick said the merged entity would be “a financial powerhouse based in Queensland” with $200 billion in assets.
“The funds have indicated that fees will be able to be reduced as a result of this merger,” he said.
SECRET POLLING DEADLINE
The Queensland premier has been given a two-week deadline to release results from taxpayer-funded polling on Covid restrictions that helped her win last year’s election.
A motion moved by LNP frontbencher Fiona Simpson orders the Premier to reveal results from the sentiment polling that costs Queensland taxpayers $528,000.
With a Labor majority the motion is almost certain to fail, but an hour has been set aside to debate the issue tonight.
Palaszczuk has refused to explain why the polling won’t be released.
The Australian last month revealed more than $40,000 in polling was commissioned across a marginal Labor-held seat targeted by the opposition ahead of last year’s state election.
Hundreds of residents of the Livingstone Shire – almost exclusively in the central Queensland seat of Keppel – were interviewed about Covid just days after a newspaper poll showed it was in danger of falling to the Liberal National Party.
Join the conversation
Disability support outside the NDIS
With the government looking to take pressure off the National Disability Insurance Scheme, consultations are about to get under way about what broader disability support might look like.
Read more
Progressive climate of fear as nuclear support takes hold
Chris Bowen will weaponise government modelling warning of blackouts under the Coalition’s energy policy and demand-supply gaps of up to 49 per cent by 2035, amid growing support for Peter Dutton’s nuclear pitch in inner-city seats.
Read more