Enough of Premier’s nonsense

POLITICS is confusing at the best of times but the debacle over Labor’s on- again- offagain support or non- support of Adani’s Carmichael coal mine would stump the most astute political minds.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s stunning withdrawal of support for the Indian miner’s application for Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility funding on Friday took voters by surprise.

Ms Palaszczuk claimed her pledge to veto the NAIF application stemmed from a mystery LNP smear campaign against her partner and has since rebuffed critics by arguing this opposition to Adani’s rail line loan was her position all along.

If the Premier was simply confirming her long- held opposition to Adani receiving a Commonwealth loan, why call an unscheduled press conference at 4.30pm on a Friday to do so?

If the veto pledge was simply Ms Palaszczuk following through on a promise, it seems no one in the North knew about it.

Today’s front page story, revealing Treasurer Curtis Pitt’s contradiction of the Premier’s position in pledging the government will in fact administer NAIF funding to Adani should the application be successful creates further confusion.

The Treasurer appears to have vetoed the Premier.

Or perhaps Ms Palaszczuk’s long- held view on NAIF funding for Adani was not only not widely known across the state but also across the Cabinet table by her closest colleague.

The widely held view is that Labor is scrambling to shore up support from inner- city voters who have been harangued by anti- Adani protesters on every street corner in the southeast.

The Greens are reportedly unleashing armies of volunteers to campaign against Labor in key seats where its members feel the party has betrayed a pledge to end Australia’s coal industry.

Today’s contradiction by the Treasurer means the project is back on track, but for voters, it will only bring more confusion about who is steering Queensland Labor.