Queensland election gender rules: Two male Labor MPs to be forced out for women candidates
Men of Queensland Labor are on notice. Male members of Annastacia Palaszczuk’s caucus will have to quit – or be booted — thanks to strict gender quotas.
G’day readers, and welcome to another edition of Feeding the Chooks, your (almost) weekly behind-the-scenes insight into the (often bonkers, always entertaining) world of Queensland politics.
FEMALES TO THE FRONT
Blokes of Queensland Labor, consider yourselves officially on notice.
Two of the 31 male members of Annastacia Palaszczuk’s 52-person caucus will have to quit – or be forced out – ahead of next year’s state election to meet the party’s strict gender quota rules.
While Palaszczuk had insisted last year that “all my MPs have the opportunity to contest the next election,” ALP state secretary Kate Flanders has confirmed the inevitable: two men are on their way out, and her “conversations” will start shortly.
The ALP affirmative action policy, which ramped up again last year, requires women to be preselected in 45 per cent of seats held by Labor. Women currently make up 40 per cent of the state Labor caucus.
And this July, a “transitional rule” expires that has protected any sitting councillors, MPs and senators from affirmative action in preselection battles.
In Labor’s perfect world, a couple of men would come to the sudden realisation their time was up and there would be no need for forced resignations.
But what happens if nobody wants to “spend more time with their families,” that time-honoured reason for retiring from politics?
Flanders says: “If no one decides to step down, then all of the preselections are stopped until such time as we are able to preselect enough women in all of those positions”.
Chooks contacted every sitting male Labor MP to ask whether they were planning to run again next year.
Cabinet ministers Cameron Dick, Mark Ryan, Steven Miles, Scott Stewart, Stirling Hinchliffe Glenn Butcher, Mick de Brenni, Mark Furner and Craig Crawford have all confirmed they’re pressing ahead for 2024.
Mundingburra MP Les Walker – a noted supporter of Townsville’s night-time economy – says he hasn’t turned his mind to whether or not he will run again because he is “way too busy doing (his) job” and “doesn’t get caught up in that long-range stuff”.
Second-term Cairns MP Michael Healy says while he reckons “people shouldn’t make a career of politics,” he’s “good to go again, if they’ll have me”.
Backbencher Joe Kelly “of course” plans to run for Greenslopes again and Bart Mellish and Adrian Tantari “absolutely” want to have another crack at Aspley and Hervey Bay respectively.
In Maryborough, Bruce Saunders is getting a Labor-red VW van, to match his red Doc Martens and red hard hat, and is “ready and raring to run again”. It took Caloundra MP Jason Hunt three goes to get elected so he doesn’t plan to step back after one term in parliament.
So in short, of the Labor blokes who got back to Chooks, only Les Walker is still weighing his options, and the rest are running again next year.
Chooks is still waiting to hear from Transport Minister Mark Bailey and backbencher Jim Madden (currently under a cloud).
Over to you, fellas.
CALL ME SIR
Speaking of embattled Ipswich West MP Jim Madden – read all about that here – he was more verbose when Chooks last checked in with him on the issue of affirmative action in July.
Madden, of the Left faction but formerly of the Right, the Left’s Peter Russo, Mundingburra MP Les Walker, and senior Right ministers Stirling Hinchliffe and Mark Furner have all been suggested in Labor circles as the gents-most-likely to go (although that could change).
But as of July, before the bullying, coercive control and inappropriate touching allegations were made public, Madden was determined to stay in Ipswich West, a seat Labor holds with a margin of more than 14 per cent.
“I fully intend to run as the ALP Candidate for Ipswich West in the 2024 State Election,” Madden said.
“I love being the Member for Ipswich West, which covers the area that my mother and father’s family chose to settle when they came to Australia from Ireland in the 1880s.”
“Being born and raised in Ipswich, it is an area I am very familiar with, where I spend Christmases with family and where I love doing volunteer work. I enjoy helping my constituents, working with my community groups, particularly my rural groups and schools, as well as fighting for state and federal funding for my electorate.”
KAISER’S CHIEF AMBITIONS DASHED
Mike Kaiser will not be Queensland’s most powerful public servant – at least not for the next three years.
The former ALP MP for Woodridge, Labor state secretary, and chief of staff to Premiers Anna Bligh and Morris Iemma, Kaiser was heavily tipped in senior government circles to become director-general of Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Department of Premier and Cabinet.
But Chooks- and today’s Government Gazette – have confirmed that current DG Rachel Hunter has won Palaszczuk’s approval to stay on in the role. Hunter has officially had her contract extended for another three years.
Kaiser remains DG of Deputy Premier Steven Miles’ mega-department of State Development and Everything Else, and is also serving as temporary Co-ordinator-General.
LAMMO LOSES; KEEPS FAITH
He might have lost a vote on his home turf this week but Andrew Laming’s supporters are adamant it was a “magnificent result under the circumstances”.
The former federal MP made his first foray back on the political scene on Wednesday night, running for branch chair in the bayside electorate of Oodgeroo.
It was the first test of his numbers and the results were close. Laming lost out to incumbent chair Chris Reeves in a tight vote. Depending on who you talk to in the party, the result was 49-51 or 48-54.
Laming fans say the result gave him a “perfect platform going forward”.
You can read between the lines on that one, given Laming is tipped to vie for preselection against sitting Oodgeroo LNP MP Mark Robinson.
There’s also talk he could challenge Gerard Rennick for third spot on the senate ticket or run for mayor of the Redlands.
“You never really know what Lammo is up to, but he is definitely up to something,” an LNP source said.
Branch sources who attended Wednesday night’s meeting described it as a “shitshow” and “shambolic”.
Sources say tension erupted between supporters of Bowman MP Henry Pike and his predecessor, Laming, over a motion about refunding party fees to MPs.
While the vote for branch chair may be done and dusted, party drama in the Redlands will only ramp up in coming months.
DON’T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER
Speaking of Laming, the ophthalmologist has just quietly released a new book.
Titled “Political Covid: How Australia’s Leadership Played the Pandemic”, the 190-page tome takes a look at how states and the feds responded to the pandemic.
Pollster and strategist Mike Turner and Lammo will talk about the book at the Conservative Breakfast Club at Tattersalls next month.
But for the low, low price of $10, you can go along to his book launch hosted by the Australian Institute of Progress in Fortitude Valley next week. Or, you could pretend we’re still in lockdown, and stay at home on the couch.
LABOR IS NOT WORRIED ABOUT THE GREENS, OK! OK?
At last year’s federal election, the Greens won three Queensland seats: two from the LNP and one, Kevin Rudd’s prized former electorate of Griffith, from the ALP.
The progressive minor party in Queensland now boasts three federal MPs, two senators, two state MPs, and one seat on the Brisbane City Council.
Greensland, anyone?
So it’s not surprising that Queensland Labor figures are getting increasingly worried about the rise of their anti-conservative bedfellows.
Chooks was interested to note Labor Senator Anthony Chisholm – a former state secretary of the ALP in Queensland – paying Facebook to promote an opinion piece in the Australian Financial Review this week tearing strips off one of the Greens’ young stars.
Newbie Greens MP for Griffith Max Chandler-Mather is the party’s housing spokesman and is opposing the Albanese government’s $10bn social housing fund – which would build 30,000 homes in five years including 1300 in his own seat – on the grounds it’s not enough housing or cash.
Chandler-Mather says 640,000 families in Australia need an affordable or social home, and $5bn a year needs to be spent by the feds.
Chisholm – in his paid Facebook post – says the Greens “don’t want to address the housing crisis, they only want to play politics”.
QLD LNP SAYS ‘NO’ TO VOICE
Queensland Liberal National Party Leader David Crisafulli may still have an “open mind” about the Indigenous voice to parliament but it seems the state party office has made it up for him.
This week, Crisafulli said he was still weighing up his position and generally doesn’t “go off half-cocked on things”.
“There isn’t a vote tomorrow, it is still many months away and there is still a parliamentary report that has to come back,” he said.
But Queensland’s Liberal National Party has shared social media posts promoting the No campaign.
The party’s Facebook page, authorised by state director Ben Riley, shared a post branded with Nationals logo calling for people to “say no to the voice” and “support real change”.
EVENT TO HAVE LESS LEESER?
Free tickets are still on offer for a special voice event due to be hosted by the Liberal Party’s highest-profile Yes campaigner Julian Leeser and Sunshine Coast-based Fisher MP Andrew Wallace in June.
Wallace is staunchly opposed to the voice, writing in an email to constituents this week that it would “divide Australians, and at the same time provide little to no real benefit to Indigenous communities on the ground”.
“I was the first of many colleagues to speak against the proposed amendment because it will be a retrograde step for our country,” Wallace said.
Sharing results from a survey he conducted in his electorate of 3144 people, Wallace says 28 per cent supported proposed amendment to the Constitution while 72 per cent indicated they would vote no.
Due to take place at the Caloundra Power Boat Club on June 6, Chooks hears a new “special guest” is on the cards after Leeser quit the front bench this week over the Liberals’ stance on the voice.
Wallace’s office says: “The Voice Forum in the Fisher electorate on June 6 has garnered significant interest and will go ahead. In light of upcoming changes to the Coalition frontbench, a special guest is yet to be determined”.
PALASZCZUK’S SOCIAL MEDIA SPINNER EXITS
The woman in charge of crafting Annastacia Palaszczuk’s social media persona during the Covid-19 pandemic has quit.
Emily Arlidge, a one-time staffer to former LNP Minister Scott Emerson and formerly of 7 News, will depart as head of the Premier’s digital team in two weeks.
The digital team is notorious for staff turnover. As Chooks reported last year, at least nine people quit the team in a 12 month period.
SPOTTED
It used to be, in politics, that the worst thing you could end up with on your face was egg.
Not so for the LNP’s Bonney MP Sam O’Connor.
The Gold Coast pollie was bemused over the Easter weekend to find the larger-than-life portrait on his Labrador office sign had been adorned with some rather abstract graffiti.
“Poor effort,” O’Connor mused.
“Very anatomically inaccurate, 3/10.”
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