Monday 13 February 2017
Annastacia Palaszczuk: How I’ll counter One Nation
Sarah Vogler, The Courier-Mail
February 12, 2017 11:36am
PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk says her government’s push to spend more time in the regions “listening and delivering” will help counter the rising political threat of One Nation.
Ms Palaszczuk this morning responded to an Galaxy poll conducted exclusively for The Courier-Mail which found one in four Queenslanders intended to vote for One Nation at the next State Election, due later this year.
More than one in three believed it would be good for One Nation to hold the balance of power in the next parliament.
Ms Palaszczuk backed her government’s decision to bring back compulsory preferential voting despite One Nation’s resurgence.
“I don’t because when we come to the election there will be a clear choice and that choice is a stable Labor Government led by me, a Premier who listens, a Premier who understands the concerns of Queensland families and delivering or the alternative is a One Nation/ LNP coalition led by Tim Nicholls.
“I don’t think the people of Queensland want that disruption to Queensland.”
Ms Palaszczuk said she believed her government was demonstrating it was listening.
“I have been extensively travelling across this state since returning back from leave. I have been out there listening but there’s one thing I want to say to the people of Queensland and that is not only am I listening but my government is also delivering,” she said.
“We know that the people in the regions are doing it tough and that is why I am out there constantly talking to the people in the regions, listening to the people in the regions and making sure that we deliver programs and projects that can create jobs.”
Ms Palaszczuk pointed to the planned overhaul of trading hours as one example of a job-creation policy.
“What I will continue to do is listen and deliver.”
Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls has refused to be drawn on whether he will consider doing a deal with One Nation to form government if support for the far-right party in recent opinion polls is replicated at the ballot box at the looming state election.
Mr Nicholls said he understood voters were “mad as hell” after a Galaxy poll conducted exclusively for The Courier-Mail found 23 per cent of voters intended to choose One Nation.
But he insisted he was in the next election to win it outright and would not rule in or out a potential deal with One Nation should the party win enough seats to hold the balance of power.
Sunday 5 February 2017
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk rules out governing deal with One Nation
Sarah Vogler, The Courier-Mail
February 4, 2017 12:00am
PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk would rather relegate Labor to the wilderness of Opposition than share power with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation after the next election.
In an exclusive and wide-ranging interview with The Courier-Mail on the second anniversary of her election win, Ms Palaszczuk said she was focused on gaining a majority at the next election, which could be held later this year.
But if not, she ruled out a governing deal with One Nation. Labor has already signalled its intention to put One Nation last on ballot papers.
“I’m not having a coalition with them. I am firmly focused on a majority government and there will be no coalition with One Nation,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“I think the people are going to start seeing the LNP and One Nation as one and the same.”
Labor has been pressuring the LNP to declare its hand on a preference deal with One Nation after a deal was struck between the WA Liberals and the minor party. Many in Labor fear the move to compulsory preferential voting could backfire on them following the rise of One Nation.
Ms Palaszczuk, who has spent more time in regional Queensland than the southeast since returning from leave last month, says her Government will continue its focus on job-creation policies this year with her aim to have an unemployment rate with five in front of it.
She said she and her ministers would continue to fan out across the regions for the rest of the term.
“What I am firmly hearing from the people in the southeast is that they understand,” Ms Palaszczuk, who was speaking in Rockhampton where she governed for the week, said.
“They stop me in the street and they say ‘we see you in regional Queensland and they are doing it tough so it’s good that your there listening and helping them’.”
Ms Palaszczuk formed minority government with the help of Independent MP Peter Wellington following a stunning electoral comeback in 2015.
She said she believed the Government’s work was bearing fruit.
“Over the last two years I think we have clearly shown the people of Queensland that we are a stable government,” she said.
“That we have a clear vision for growing the state and that the economy is turning the corner.”
The Premier pointed to the mid-year fiscal and economic review handed down by Treasurer Curtis Pitt last year and the $2 billion operating surplus contained within it as an example of that.
She said one of the Government’s back to work policies had created 1200 jobs so far.
That regional focus is also designed to help Labor head off a resurgent One Nation hoping to win a slew of seats at the state election.
Ms Palaszczuk has dismissed suggestions she is concerned by the minor party’s popularity which she said was born out of a wave of dissatisfaction sweeping not just Queensland but the world.
But she said she believed it was possible to counter that movement.
“I think the issue there is that you will always have people who may feel dissatisfied or may feel they want to protest about a particular issue,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“My job is clearly to demonstrate to people where we are delivering services and where we are creating jobs.
“We are yet to see anything tangible that One Nation is delivering.”
Complaint to Crime and Corruption Commission Qld over alleged councillor domestic violence data leak
Tom Snowdon, The Courier-Mail
February 5, 2017 12:00am
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-government/complaint-to-crime-and-corruption-commission-qld-over-alleged-councillor-domestic-violence-data-leak/news-story/adb48cf44c28101d24b61c8db92cdf71
A Queensland councillor is accused of giving a One Nation staffer who has had domestic violence concerns raised about him confidential information about his ex.
Logan City Council’s Darren Power has been referred to the state’s corruption watchdog following a conversation in which he was allegedly told about steps council had taken to protect One Nation policy adviser Sean Black’s former partner.
A complaint filed with the Crime and Corruption Commission alleges Cr Power may have relayed those steps to Mr Black – a former Logan City councillor who now works for One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts – during a subsequent conversation with him.
Cr Power strongly denies ever even being told about the protective measures, let alone passing them on to Mr Black.
He said in a text message to The Sunday Mail he thought the CCC complaint was part of a wider political game to punish him for speaking out about a contentious development on a koala habitat in his division.
“This sounds like a political payback for my opposition to the Carbrook development, or do they think I am running for One Nation?” Cr Power said.
It is understood the police, Local Government Minister Jackie Trad and Domestic Violence Minister Shannon Fentiman have all been made aware of the complaint.
The CCC refused to confirm a complaint had been received. But a spokeswoman for Logan Mayor Luke Smith declined to comment because of the “involvement” of the CCC.
Mr Black, despite repeated approaches, made no comment for this story but stopped it running in last week’s Sunday Mail by applying for an eleventh-hour injunction that prevented its publication.
Those orders were revoked during a closed court application hearing on Monday in Brisbane’s Supreme Court.
Cr Power, according to a document obtained by The Sunday Mail, was called into Mayor Smith’s office in December for a conversation about the domestic violence concerns against Mr Black.
“I found this unusual as Cr Smith and I have a difficult relationship and we rarely talk in private,” Cr Power writes in the document, dated January 22 this year, which was given to Mr Black.
“Cr Smith then told me that he had heard that Sean Black has a habit of domestic violence, that he ‘bashed his former wife’ and that ‘it was just a matter of time before it catches up with him and that the papers are aware’, and that ‘is (sic) all about to explode’ in the media.”
The long-time councillor, who has been repeatedly elected since 1997, claimed he believed Cr Smith had heard this information directly from Mr Black’s former partner:
"Cr Smith led me to believe that the story that was about to break in the paper would ‘mean Sean Black would be one of the most politically maligned individuals in Australia’,” the document says. It was supplied to the CCC as part of the complaint.
Mr Black, who was once banned from attending meetings without security guards amid bullying allegations, was elected as a Logan councillor in 2008 before he left in 2012 to return to the property industry.
He has previously said the ban was an attempt to silence him for his part in an unsuccessful coup against the former deputy mayor.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-government/complaint-to-crime-and-corruption-commission-qld-over-alleged-councillor-domestic-violence-data-leak/news-story/adb48cf44c28101d24b61c8db92cdf71
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| ACCUSATION DENIED: Logan City Council’s Darren Power is holding a sign during a 2015 council-led walk against domestic violence. |
A Queensland councillor is accused of giving a One Nation staffer who has had domestic violence concerns raised about him confidential information about his ex.
Logan City Council’s Darren Power has been referred to the state’s corruption watchdog following a conversation in which he was allegedly told about steps council had taken to protect One Nation policy adviser Sean Black’s former partner.
A complaint filed with the Crime and Corruption Commission alleges Cr Power may have relayed those steps to Mr Black – a former Logan City councillor who now works for One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts – during a subsequent conversation with him.
Cr Power strongly denies ever even being told about the protective measures, let alone passing them on to Mr Black.
He said in a text message to The Sunday Mail he thought the CCC complaint was part of a wider political game to punish him for speaking out about a contentious development on a koala habitat in his division.
“This sounds like a political payback for my opposition to the Carbrook development, or do they think I am running for One Nation?” Cr Power said.
It is understood the police, Local Government Minister Jackie Trad and Domestic Violence Minister Shannon Fentiman have all been made aware of the complaint.
The CCC refused to confirm a complaint had been received. But a spokeswoman for Logan Mayor Luke Smith declined to comment because of the “involvement” of the CCC.
Mr Black, despite repeated approaches, made no comment for this story but stopped it running in last week’s Sunday Mail by applying for an eleventh-hour injunction that prevented its publication.
Those orders were revoked during a closed court application hearing on Monday in Brisbane’s Supreme Court.
Cr Power, according to a document obtained by The Sunday Mail, was called into Mayor Smith’s office in December for a conversation about the domestic violence concerns against Mr Black.
“I found this unusual as Cr Smith and I have a difficult relationship and we rarely talk in private,” Cr Power writes in the document, dated January 22 this year, which was given to Mr Black.
“Cr Smith then told me that he had heard that Sean Black has a habit of domestic violence, that he ‘bashed his former wife’ and that ‘it was just a matter of time before it catches up with him and that the papers are aware’, and that ‘is (sic) all about to explode’ in the media.”
The long-time councillor, who has been repeatedly elected since 1997, claimed he believed Cr Smith had heard this information directly from Mr Black’s former partner:
"Cr Smith led me to believe that the story that was about to break in the paper would ‘mean Sean Black would be one of the most politically maligned individuals in Australia’,” the document says. It was supplied to the CCC as part of the complaint.
Mr Black, who was once banned from attending meetings without security guards amid bullying allegations, was elected as a Logan councillor in 2008 before he left in 2012 to return to the property industry.
He has previously said the ban was an attempt to silence him for his part in an unsuccessful coup against the former deputy mayor.
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