Perhaps Queensland’s unofficial Opposition – Channel 9’s nightly 6pm news out of Brisbane – is right and it’s time for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to call it a day.
A clear sign that perhaps she’s losing her political judgement came last week with her knee-jerk reaction to Opposition Leader David Crisafulli’s decision to walk back LNP support for a state-based treaty with our state’s First Nations people.
Palaszczuk seemed to take Crisafulli’s lead, stating on Nine News’ 6pm bulletin out of Brisbane last Thursday that such a treaty would only be possible with bipartisan support. The bulletin showed her repeatedly making that point.
As Melissa Downes stated in her lead-in: “In a stunning day in Queensland politics, both the Premier and Opposition Leader distanced themselves from a commitment to sign treaties with indigenous Queenslanders.”
State politics editor Tim Arvier could barely conceal his glee with his opening remarks: “A rare sight in politics; both sides spitting on the same day about the same issue.”
But he then had much fun in reporting that “late in the afternoon, the Premier’s message changed again”.
“In a snap party-room meeting with Labor MPs, she told them essentially nothing had changed.”
The premier reporetedly told her troops the years-long process to treaty would continue and bipartisan support would depend on who was LNP leader down the track.
But Arvier ended with a telling point: “That commitment to treaty was something she couldn’t, or wouldn’t, say on camera.”
Even newsreader Andrew Lofthouse felt the need for a little editorialising: “Gets a little confusing, doesn’t it, Tim?” It certainly does, Ollie.
And let’s call a spade a spade. Palaszczuk has been in charge now for many years and perhaps the Voice referendum result, especially in the Sunshine State, has finally revealed to her that she does indeed run a state chockablock full of racists and it makes good sense to run a mile from anything to do with a state-based treaty for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples?
But her argument that the local treaty needs bipartisan support is an absolute nonsense, something her colleagues appear to have reacted to. Queensland has a unicameral parliamentary system and the state’s Labor government could legislate for a treaty any time it wants. And a local voice for that matter. Aussies on October 14 simply declared they didn’t want the Voice enshrined in the Australian constitution.
Palaszczuk first staked her first claim for decency when Crisafulli gutlessly and cowardly came out against the national Voice. She could have instantly distanced herself from Crisafulli’s latest piece of chickenheartedness by declaring the state treaty was still a goer.
She could have instinctively seen the advantage of appealing to the better angels among her Queensland mob. That while Queenslanders might have been opposed to entrenching the Voice in the Constitution, Queenslanders were not racists and would support a legislated method that would close the gap by ensuring public money is better spent, through firstly a Queensland voice and then a treaty down the track. Both leave the supposedly sacrosanct Constitution absolutely untouched.
Once her federal counterpart Anthony Albanese stops licking his wounds, he should also push forward with exactly the same ideas on the national stage, easily get both through the lower house and let the cards fall where they may in the Senate well before the next federal election.
My sphincter puckers at the very thought of the painful wedgie coming on for LNP opposition leaders at both state and federal level if Palaszczuk and Albanese show some guts in their own beliefs and display some faith in the Australian people, totally undeserved as it might be.
Don Gordon-Brown
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