Qld election 2020: Annastacia Palaszczuk must pick own Cabinet

As Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is re-elected with a thumping mandate, there is one thing she must do before she can get back to work, writes the editor.

Annastacia Palaszczuk’s extraordinary election victory on Saturday night is intrinsically linked to the leadership she demonstrated during the COVID-19 crisis, rather than the plan she has to tackle the problems it has created.

And apart from “pulling up my sleeves”, Ms Palaszczuk made no reference in her acceptance speech as to what her re-elected Government’s priorities would be in attempting to resuscitate the Queensland economy and drag the state off the bottom of the unemployment pile.

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Yesterday, the Premier wasn’t giving away much either as she basked in the afterglow of her third victory – other than talking about how she still planned to finally release the State Budget at the beginning of December.

But if Ms Palaszczuk is going to properly address the big challenges this state faces she must begin by ensuring the most talented people from the Labor caucus are around her Cabinet table. She has earnt the right to finally scupper the influence of union bosses who have had far too much influence over the decision-making of Ms Palaszczuk’s last two administrations, and proven a hefty albatross around her neck on economic matters.

Queenslanders saw first hand during the campaign how these figures were not going to go quietly when United Workers Union boss Gary Bullock sideswiped Ms Palaszczuk with his talk about how Labor would continue to use its traditional “democratic processes” of the factions selecting their own ministers after the Premier insisted her former deputy Jackie Trad would not be returned to Cabinet.

Given the good burghers of South Brisbane have sorted this schism out for Labor by ejecting Ms Trad from Parliament, the Premier should now use the dominance she has over the party to ensure the factions don’t send her laggards.

Throughout her premiership, Ms Palaszczuk has too often absented herself from prickly internal topics and allowed the Left faction to operate unfettered in certain policy areas.

She’s been guilty of creating a leadership vacuum and Ms Trad was often required to – or chose to – fill that void and mould the response to suit the Left’s priorities.

Ms Palaszczuk also left the integrity issues that engulfed Ms Trad, Transport Minister Mark Bailey and her own chief of staff David Barbargello to drag on for too long.

Queensland can’t afford this cautionary approach to governing any longer.

As we said in our editorial on Friday, what our state needs now more than ever is change.

We need not only an end to the ideological follies that do nothing but distract our political leaders, but we need a more disciplined approach to governing and managing of the economy – and a Cabinet with a sharper focus on the importance of regional jobs towards our shared prosperity.

The leadership Ms Palaszczuk has shown during the COVID-19 pandemic – ensuring she is front and centre of courageous decisions being made quickly and decisively in the interests of Queenslanders – is the same style that’s needed every day for the next four years on all matters.

This state deserves a government that is fully focused on the task at hand as it goes about rebuilding industries post-COVID, and creating the jobs that will be required to replace those that we have lost.

That has to start with Ms Palaszczuk showing the unions who is boss and picking her own Cabinet. After that, the hard work can begin.

LNP must remain united in defeat

And so the LNP is poised to begin its traditional post-election loss bloodletting.

While LNP Leader Deb Frecklington insists she’s staying on as leader, there are forces within the party who have other ideas after she failed to convince voters of the alternative at Saturday’s election.

There is a push for Broadbeach MP David Crisafulli to challenge Ms Frecklington for the leadership. Perhaps the LNP party room will decide it is time for change.

But any suggestion that it was the single-party LNP model that caused this loss is completely delusional. That would be a case of blaming the tool, not the operator. Labor has been able to transcend the city and country divide and so there’s no valid excuse why the LNP cannot.

Those who push for the LNP to be de-amalgamated forget that the reason the LNP was formed in the first place was because the Queensland Liberal and National Party coalition kept losing elections.

Originally published as Qld election 2020: Annastacia Palaszczuk must pick own Cabinet