Without a head-kicker, Premier beginning to see what she lost in Jackie Trad
She may have had her own integrity issues, but the loss of former government “head kicker” Jackie Trad has left a bigger hole in the Palaszczuk Government than many would care to admit, writes Madonna King
The Palaszczuk Government needs Jackie Trad, the fiesty former deputy who lost her seat at the last election.
Indeed, if Trad was sitting around the Cabinet table during discussions over the past year, it’s almost inconceivable that Annastacia Palaszczuk would now find herself getting out of bed, each day, on the back foot.
Every government needs a tough and ambitious senior minister at the table, with a ‘take-no-prisoners’ approach; a minister with the skill and willingness to interfere in other portfolios, not just play in a narrow lane, and call it how they see it.
In politically incorrect terms, they’re called a head-kicker – and their role in any government is to eschew being a ‘yes’ man or woman; to question decisions, take a counter view, cop public flak, and to even keep the troops in line.
Bob Hawke had Paul Keating, who made his life hell and his government better. John Howard owes much to Peter Costello. Peter Beattie had Terry Mackenroth, fondly called ‘the fox’. Anna Bligh had Paul Lucas, who didn’t know how to take a backward step. Scott Morrison has Peter Dutton, who looks like he’d always prefer a barney to a roundtable.
On both sides of politics, they have remarkably similar personality traits. They don’t seek to be popular (unless it’s election time), they’re smart, they’re willing to question the group-think that happens inside big political parties, and they wear their ideology on their sleeve.
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They are feared by those inside their own party and rarely get to the top job – although they’d love it. But their role, inside the party, is as crucial as the leader – in terms of discipline, the rigour of debate and the policies adopted.
Peter Beattie articulated that when he returned Terry Mackenroth to the ministry back in 1998. He needed “a tough son of a bitch’’ by his side, he said.
Jackie Trad, the State’s former deputy premier and Treasurer who had held the seat of South Brisbane since 2012, lost her job at the last election. And, reading the wallpaper of integrity complaints against the Government, that coincides with where the government began to lose its way.
Trad faced her own integrity probes – over the appointment of a school principal and the purchase of a house near the State Government’s cross river rail project. But she was cleared by the CCC in both instances – and in the current firestorm facing the government, that might have even added value to its response.
But it all raises the question of who might be playing the role she, and others before her, perfected so well?
Deputy Premier Steven Miles, who took over from his factional colleague? No. He’s aiming more for the statesman-look – successfully or not.
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Cameron Dick. No. Grace Grace. No. Yvette D’Ath. No. Mark Bailey. No. Run down the list of ministers, and it appears no-one has taken on that role played by Jackie Trad.
So is anyone really questioning the decisions of the ALP Government behind closed doors?
Is anyone willing to take on Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk?
Is anyone willing to say ‘no’ when everyone else is saying ‘yes’?
Judging by the list of complaints now dogging the government, that’s unlikely.
A need-to-know approach? Public servants unable to deliver independent advice? Computers being taken and passwords changed, without explanation? The State’s top integrity expert being secretly referred by the premier for investigation? Reports changed to make the government look good?
“I’ve always said we need to do better,’’ Palaszczuk said this week. “I expect robust processes.’’
So what are they? What will she materially change, inside her own government, to encourage that?
Perhaps that robust process needs to include robust debate, not enthusiastic nods around the Cabinet table.
Because unless that is encouraged and implemented, we all lose.
And that will include the State Government, which risks a similar fate to its dogged former deputy Jackie Trad.
