Queensland Labor elder says government needs policy overhaul

Annastacia Palaszczuk’s government has to stop caving to populism and focus on fixing policy problems if it wants to win next year’s state election, former Labor minister John Mickel says.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Tertius Pickard

Annastacia Palaszczuk’s government has to stop caving to populism and focus on fixing policy problems if it wants to win next year’s state election, former Labor minister John Mickel says.

Ms Palaszczuk is under pressure to quit after a torrid parliamentary week and successive polls suggesting her popularity is plummeting, with the state government headed for ­defeat in Oct­ober next year.

Key public scrutiny processes were avoided by the state government last week when it overrode its own human rights act to make it legal for children as young as 10 to be detained in adult prisons and watch houses.

One Labor MP said “We managed to look soft on crime and too tough on crime at the same time”, while another said it as a “dis­astrous week”.

Government whip Don Brown this week described the youth crime crisis as a “media beat-up”, which Acting Premier Steven Miles said was a “stupid thing to say”.

Mr Mickel, a member of Labor’s Right who served in parliament for 14 years, said the government needed a “more con­sidered approach” to policy if it were to have any hope of winning a fourth term.

Former Queensland speaker and now QUT associate professor John Mickel

“Don’t go for what is popular, go for what is good policy,” said Mr Mickel, an adjunct associate professor at the Queensland University of Technology.

“What we had last week was politics and not good policy.

“It is not just a media announcement … What are the implications of our decision today? Do we have the resources? Do we have the money? Do we have the personnel?

“And what’s our ability to evaluate our policy?”

Ms Palaszczuk has repeatedly defied expectations and increased Labor’s seat count at three successive elections but after almost nine years in office, key sections of Queensland Labor believe it is time for renewal and want her to bow out to give her replacement time to prepare for the October 2024 election.

Speaking to The Australian, Mr Mickel said: “The longer you stay, the more shopworn you go – it’s just that simple.

“There’s nowhere to hide after a while, as leader of a state or as leader of a nation.”

Labor Party rules in Queensland makes it near impossible to roll Ms Palaszczuk, with at least 50 per cent of her MPs needed to support a petition to the ALP state secretary for a ballot.

The Australian revealed on Saturday that several ministerial colleagues, backbenchers and close allies were privately saying she needed to be convinced to go before October.

Ms Palaszczuk and partner Reza Adib jetted out for a two-week Italian holiday on Saturday, leaving Left faction leader Mr Miles to fill the role of Acting Premier.

Treasurer Cameron Dick, the most senior member of the Right faction behind Ms Palaszczuk, on Tuesday revealed he did not know the Premier was leaving the country.

Earlier that day, the Courier Mail published a 576-word re-election blueprint penned by Mr Dick that failed to mention Ms Palaszczuk by name.

Considered by some in the party as a pitch to the backbench and others as a “desperate ploy” to be included in leadership speculation, Mr Dick’s opinion piece said the October 2024 election would be the “toughest yet … but I do not believe the situation is as dire as some make out.

“There are 52 members of our Labor caucus. I believe that every single one can be re-elected.”

In the dominant Left faction – which controls the numbers in cabinet and caucus – Mr Miles and Health Minister Shannon Fentiman would be frontrunners in any leadership ballot.

Mr Miles said the Treasurer’s opinion piece was “essentially saying what I’ve been saying, what everyone in government has been saying: we have a strong, united, stable team under Annastacia Palaszczuk’s leadership.”