Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath to quit politics at October poll

Queensland’s A-G Yvette D’Ath has announced she will leave politics at the October election despite repeated denials to The Australian.

Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath has announced she will not recontest her seat of Redcliffe at the October state election. Picture: Richard Walker

The retirement announcement of Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath could usher in a fresh wave of Labor exits ahead of October’s state election, ALP insiders predict.

A decade after she entered state parliament, and about 17 years after her election as a federal MP, Ms D’Ath on Thursday said she would quit politics at the upcoming poll “when people are still asking me to stay, rather than telling me to go”.

Her Right faction is jostling to find a replacement candidate – likely a woman, to fit the party’s strict gender quota rules – for the Brisbane bayside seat of Redcliffe, a target seat for the Liberal ­National Party.

Premier Steven Miles has backed Ms D’Ath to remain in cabinet until October to push through the legislative agenda in her portfolio, including overseeing recommendations from the landmark DNA lab inquiry, an overhaul of sexual consent laws, the outlawing of coercive control, and the decriminalisation of sex work.

“As Attorney-General, she has a lot of work under way most of which is scheduled to be complete in time for the election,” he said.

“With eight months (until the election), it would be very difficult for somebody to get across that work and make sure it landed in time so I think it is entirely appropriate that Yvette continues to deliver on those commitments.”

Ms D’Ath was dumped by former premier Annastacia Palas­zczuk as health minister in May last year, and Mr Miles removed her from the post of leader of the house after he became Premier in December.

Despite persistent rumours in Labor that she was planning to quit, Ms D’Ath had repeatedly denied she was planning on retiring.

She rejected any suggestion she was jumping off a sinking ship. “I’ve done the hard mile,” she said. “I have been here, federal and state, for 16 years so I don’t think I’m running off or jumping off anything.

“I’m leaving in my way, at my time, in a way that leaves behind a legacy I am proud of.”

Labor is already losing four MPs: former tourism minister Stirling Hinchliffe and Rockhampton MP Barry O’Rourke are retiring at the October poll, and Ms Palaszczuk and Ipswich West MP Jim Madden’s abrupt exits have triggered by-elections in March.

ALP sources say it is expected there will be another wave of Labor retirements announced, probably after the state budget is released in June.

Though they have all said they will recontest their seats, Labor sources say Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace, Resources Minister Scott Stewart, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Leeanne Enoch, sacked child safety minister Craig Crawford, Mackay MP Julieanne Gilbert, and Toohey MP Peter Russo are all considering their futures.

Former Labor candidate for the federal seat of Petrie Corinne Mulholland, now an in-house lobbyist for Star casinos, is Mr Miles’s preferred option to replace Ms D’Ath as Redcliffe candidate, but several sources say she is reluctant to stand.

Ms D’Ath was elected for Redcliffe in February 2014 at a by-election, after the departure of disgraced LNP MP Scott Driscoll.

Before she became a politician, she was an industrial advocate for a union.