Voter respect on the nose all around

Five years after becoming Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk still doesn’t know how to exercise power. She dragged Labor off the floor from its worst drubbing in 2012, and single-handedly defeated Campbell Newman in 2015 with a one-two combination of likability and integrity before winning again in 2017.

Yet despite being the government’s best asset, at least electorally, she is beholden to the dominant Left faction, its MPs and their union patrons. It should be the other way around.

Palaszczuk, a member of the Right, has overseen a government that has been riven by infighting and suspicion, with a cabinet where the decisions are often determined by outside meetings of the Jackie Trad-led Left group of ministers. It says everything that the Premier refused to dump then energy minister Mark Bailey, whose secret dealings with the Electrical Trades Union prompted a year-long corruption probe, or Trad over her own integrity scandal.

Palaszczuk is reluctant to take them on. And now she is paying the price. The recent poll, published in The Courier-Mail at the weekend, shows satisfaction among voters with her performance has nosedived from 46 per cent to 29 per cent in a year. And now her backbenchers are nervous.

On the other side, Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington’s satisfaction levels also plummeted from 31 per cent to 23 per cent in the same poll.

She has, in recent weeks, failed her own test of leadership after shrugging off revelations that Liberal National Party president David Hutchinson had joined a growing list of party officials on the payroll of political rival Clive Palmer.

Only time will tell, as the October 31 state election approaches, which leader is willing to take the hard decisions to earn voters’ respect.