The almost pathological hatred that drives the desire by The Courier-Mail and the Sunday Mail to bring down the Palaszczuk government in Queensland is understandable – it’s what Rupert Murdoch wants.

But why they even bother to try is an entirely different question seeing they are so fucking bad at it.

Three state election results in a row have proved these rags are like old retired guard dogs that have gone all gummy; with a lot of frightening sound and fury, they worry around the Polish Princess’s ankles but each time she has kept her feet and kicked herself free, the mangy mongrels left in the dust to dream of what bite had been.

But in recent months, the papers have cottoned onto an attack line they think has real teeth – that Palaszczuk has lost interest in leading the state and now prefers to party on!

As former and highly respected Courier columnist Terry Sweetman tweeted on December 2…

Who’s they? indeed, Terry.

The Courier strategy in fact ticks two boxes for the people who run the shitpaper: their almost pathological hatred of Labor governments and their almost pathological hatred of women.

If you doubt the latter, read recent columns by Nick Cater (The Australian), Andrew Bolt (the Herald Sun) and Mike O’Connor (The Courier-Mail). Hatred of women is a common trait across all Newscorpse titles.

Don’t ask why but the geniuses who run these rags think getting their male, rightwing nutjob columnists to offend women is the solution to declining circulations in a country that has more sheilas than blokes. These people make Elon Musk look smart.

Cater despairs that young women are drifting away from conservative parties because they are too well educated and think about things far too deeply and far too often and the sooner they drop out, get married and discover how rotten life can be the better.

Bolt has just penned disgusting, tummy-turning things about Britanny Higgins that were the Herald Sun helmed by someone with integrity and decency, this South African reject would have cleaned out his desk by now. He’s probably been given a bonus instead.

O’Connor of course has written about Bruce Lehrmann’s bravery and dignified silence in staying shtum while his counsel spent days ripping into his accuser’s life.

The attack on the party girl in Queensland in fact ticks a third box for the Newscorpse MO generally. Go hard and personal; policies or performance don’t rate.

Hence the mainstream mediocre campaign against Daniel Andrews in Victoria over recent years. Dictator Dan. Toxic Dan. Wife-blaming Dan. Accident-faking Dan! Coffee-shop closing Dan. About-to-lose-an-election Dan. Mentioned by IBAC four times Dan!

Went down a treat, didn’t it? Gum! Gum! Gum. Take that, you bastard. We’re biting as hard as we can; why the fuck aren’t you screaming?

Now it is true that Annastacia Palaszczuk has a new man in her life of recent times. She’s spruced herself up a bit and maybe she’s going out to a few more social events. I could care less.

But this has only led to large globs of saliva dribbling in excited expectation from the pale-white and useless gums of the attack dogs at News Queensland. It’s like they are truly annoyed that someone is now slipping Annastacia one. Palaszczuk should be wearing something dowdy from KMart and falling asleep at her desk late at night.

And hence the heading above on the Courier’s two-page spread on a recent You Gov poll on state voting trends.

The Bug’s Media Glass House will shortly dissect the fine example of fiction writing that accompanied that poll – respected psephologist Kevin Bonham called it one of the worst media intepretations of a poll he’s seen and he pondered why the Courier continues to barrack for “the side that has won just one-and-a-half of the last 12 elections” – but I’ll just reflect on one part – the party-girl part.

The question the You Gov pollsters apparently asked 1000 respondent was whether the Premier was enjoying the high life. Rather innocuous, isn’t it? Would it be wrong for the Premier to be enjoying the trappings of office if she deserves them? It says nothing at all about whether she’s doing her job or not at the same time.

The Courier subs just had to throw in the word “just”. Six in 10 polled reckon Premier just enjoys the high life. There’s a world of difference.

I couldn’t give a flying fuck if Elton John loves or even expects to be driven to concert venues in the best stretch limo available as long as the dear old chap puts in a solid three-hour show which I’m told he always does.

High life as opposed to good life? A suspicious mind might suggest the paper and its pollster have colluded with a vague question that allows it to run freely with its Anna-mal line.

With this pathetic personal-attack malarky, The Courier-Mail and the Sunday Mail show an amazing ability to never seem to learn. And, personally, I reckon that’s a good thing.

Let them carry on with personal-attack nonsense that won’t last the almost two years left to the next Queensland election. If they think it will, they’ve lost their marbles along with their incisors.

Let David Crisafulli and the Opposition think they can sweep into office on the coattails of campaigns as transparent and transient as this one. More fool them.

Let the LNP get conned into thinking the mainstream mediocre – and The Courier-Mail and the Sunday Mail are very, very, mediocre – have really sharp teeth that can tear Annastacia apart and will get them over the line and they don’t really need to come up with a suite of policies that can sway Queenslanders to their cause.

As a Queenslander who turned 39 before seeing a state Labor government for the first time in his living memory, that’d be hunky dory by me. Both papers do more harm than good to themselves and the Queensland Opposition though their pathetic and ill-considered LNP propaganda pulp fiction.

Don Gordon-Brown