Online newsite InQueensland contributor Madonna King has a big decision to make: does she want to be a fair and balanced political reporter/analyst?

Madonna’s most recent observations on Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk have had a constant refrain: the Polish Princess has lost interest in politics and has become detached and arrogant and she needs to go ….now!

Sounds familiar? Sure does. It’s The Courier-Mail‘s go-to theme when writing about the Premier and her government.

Isn’t that the clear message that also comes through loud and clear from Madonna’s effort yesterday?

You can almost hear the likes of Des Houghton and Jack McKay (The Courier-Mail/Sunday Mail), James Campbell (Herald Sun) and Tim Arvier (Channel 9 Brisbane news) nodding in furious agreement.

Let’s dissect her rant, starting with the intro that claims Palaszczuk has said she will remain Premier for as long as she likes.

I haven’t been able to track down whether the Polish Princess uttered those precise words. I’ll take a punt and say she didn’t but I do have an alternate dinkus with egg on my face that I’ll upload post haste if Madonna provides proof those words were uttered. I’ll even put on my Sharkies cap, wander over to the despatch box and declare: “She! Can! Go!”

I do recall that last November she said she would lead Labor to the 2024 election but gave no commitment to serve out a full term. That’s a pretty standard utterance for any premier of any party.

In fact if she said she would see out that term, and the next, and the one after that, Madonna and others would be justified in calling her arrogant. As mentioned above, I’d happily join in. But if she didn’t say those words, it’s a pretty shabby way for Madonna to start a column that hopes to ooze gravitas and good professional journalistic intent. The egg-on-face dinkus is at hand though!

Clever politicians always qualify any of their expressions of future plans with a nod to the voters and their ministerial colleagues having a say in such ambitions. Politics being a numbers game and all that.

You don’t win three elections in a row without always qualifying your goals and hopes with such false modesty and a nod to the election process.

Unless keeping voters on side is no longer of any interest seeing they’ve clocked off, of course, which is Madonna’s next claim.

Over recent times, male journalists have frothed at the mouth that Palaszczuk’s private life has seen an upturn. She’s got a boyfriend and, according to some commentary, has improved her appearance and is stepping out a bit more socially after her long work hours are done. How dare she! Bitch!

Blokes such as Houghton, McKay, Arvier, Campbell (when writing exclusively from Melbourne about other state issues, especially at election times) and Peter Gleeson (remember him!) can shout: “You’ve clocked off!”

It’s not the expected thing from an intelligent, fair-minded feminist who accepts it’s okay for a woman to spruce herself up a bit without childish putdowns from dumb white pricks.

Unless, of course, Madonna’s got proof, as hinted at in her column’s standfirst, that it’s clear to people inside and outside of government ranks that the premier is now in cruise control. Is the taunt of “cruise control” the new woke putdown? Who cookered that up?

Cruise control or clocked off? Make up your mind, Madonna. Australia is full of very competent drivers who use cruise control. Still drive perfectly well. Clocked off sounds more like someone who’s nodded off at the wheel.

I can’t easily recall male prime ministers or premiers who’ve secured three election wins being accused of “clocking off”.

According to Madonna, Queensland’s boardrooms share the “clocked off view”. Well, they would, wouldn’t they? They’re the only ones who still read The Courier-Mail.

So who are these people “inside government ranks” who also share this view. Madonna goes to great interpretive lengths to paint a picture of senior ministerial figures jockeying in the back seat of the vehicle of state to see who will lurch forward and grab the steering wheel from a dozing premier.

It is instructive that Madonna in recent such reports can’t find one Labor person who can talk off the record about this great leadership battle now under way. You’d think aspirants for the top job would want to start whispers, right? Let the destabililising begin!

But let’s get back to the basic theme of Madonna’s piece: her argument that Palaszczuk should go because she failed to rock up to a Toowoomba meeting on Wednesday night about youth crime. It’s arrant nonsense. It’s rightwing nutjob territory and I would have hoped Madonna is better than that.

She might like to tell us if she agrees with Arvier’s report on Nine News last night that the Toowoomba meeting had “exploded into anger at the Premier” over her absence.

We saw footage of a woman asking where the Premier was and sure, there were supportive voices in the crowd but nothing that would blow the roof off the venue. What am I trying to say here?

I suspect it’s bit of a beat-up by Arvier and Nine who are becoming increasingly frenzied in their efforts to see Labor defeated late next year. One more aside regarding my alternate dinkus with the egg all over the face. If Tim Arvier – and I’m told he’s a fan of The Bug despite the fun we have with him, which is to his credit – can provide footage of that entire auditorium stamping their feet and shouting angrily over Palaszczuk’s disgraceful absence – show us a crowd exploding in anger – then that dinkus will be up in a jiffy. Promise!

Sure, youth crime is a burning issue right now. But there are others and the very notion that Palaszczuk had to rock up to this one or she should fuck right off is flawed right-wing rubbishy rhetoric. The government sent the Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll, Police Minister Mark Ryan and Youth Justice Minster Leanne Linard to the Garden City and it’s clear they droned on for too long, making deservedly angry people even angrier.

Madonna needs to realise that if Palaszczuk had attended the meeting, scribes at the LNP’s Bowen Hills branch – sorry, News Queensland – and the David Crisafulli Hour – sorry, Nine’s 6pm news out of Brisbane – would be declaring the woman clearly has no faith in her ministers!

Is this band of right-wing brothers the company Madonna prefers to keep? Or to be compared with? Indeed, is this what the owner of InQueensland expects of her? Let’s hope not. Another rightwing media outlet is the last thing Queensland needs.

For the sake of her reputation and that of InQueensland‘s, Madonna should steer well clear of penning shit like that shown below. I’ll continue to hold out hope that she’s much better than that!

Don Gordon-Brown