'It's been bruising': Jackie Trad says she has been targeted for her progressive views
The former Queensland deputy premier and treasurer, Jackie Trad, says her outspoken progressive views – including a successful push to reform abortion laws – made her the target of a “concerted campaign” by political opponents and media commentators in the state.
Trad resigned from the cabinet last week amid an integrity scandal. The state’s corruption watchdog is investigating allegations the influential Labor left MP interfered in the recruitment process for a local school principal.
She tells Guardian Australia – her first interview since standing down – that the past week had been a “bruising time”.
In broad-ranging comments about coal and climate, Trad says the sort of partisan “zero-sum” politics that has taken hold in Queensland, including the pre-federal election convoy to the Adani coalmine site, has undermined genuine action to address the climate crisis.
Her decision to leave the ministry was made out of concern she would become a distraction for the government in an election year. A contributing factor was the way in which she had become the constant subject of personal and political attacks.
“I made that decision in consultation with my husband,” Trad says. “There’s no doubt that I’ve been a target for quite some time and I just didn’t want that to be a distraction for the party that I have worked with and for so long. I didn’t want it to be a distraction for my work in my community. But I also need to take stock.
“There’s a concerted campaign against me because I guess I’ve stood up, I’ve stood up for the values my community care about and because there have been positive outcomes in that respect.
“I’ve not decided to be a small target. I’ve not decided to sit down and write polite letters and I get that. I get that the LNP have an agenda of payback because of the leadership role I played in the abortion law reform debate.”
In some premature political obituaries last week, Trad was described as a “defining influence” on the Palaszczuk government; in others her portrayal was as unpopular, double-crossing, ruthless, self-confident, ambitious, arrogant and dodgy.
“There is a particular world view that is pushed by a lot of media outlets – it’s not my world view, it’s not the world
view of my community,” Trad says. “There is a characterisation that’s happening that I think completely misses the mark.
“There are lots of commentators in the business of politics and the business of government and the media. There are a lot of people wanting to have a snipe. In every community I have been to, that’s in Julia Creek or Cairns or Maryborough, Queenslanders are nothing but respectful, appreciative of your time and efforts.
“There is a world of difference between what I experience on the ground and what people will say in their commentary.”
The portrayal of Trad as too progressive or extreme for Queensland plays into the binary way many seek to divide the state into tribes from “the city” and “the regions”.
Trad’s home for 40 years, and the heart of her electorate, is Brisbane’s eclectic and progressive community of West End. Her seat of South Brisbane is broadly considered at serious risk of falling to the Greens.
That political dynamic has created a narrative that has placed Trad at the centre of each government policy shift, to the left or right.
Every government position has been scrutinised as if the folks of West End and broader Queensland are at crossed purposes. That sort of partisan “zero-sum politics” is what leaves Trad cold.She says: “There are big idiosyncrasies right through Queensland. We have such a deep rich identity throughout the state but I think what the last federal election showed was that zero-sum politics throughout our state creates so much division.
“One of the things that really does divide our community is this zero-sum game that many political parties play, political parties on the left and the right. [They say] the system is broken, there’s no use operating under that system.
“As hard as it is to be plugging away and chipping away, that is more important.”
Trad has often championed progressive reforms in Queensland and often finds herself the lightning rod for critics. She had campaigned since the 1990s for the legalisation of abortion in Queensland, achieved in 2018.
On energy and climate change, Trad has found her efforts hemmed into an increasingly partisan public debate.
She is still criticised for comments, made in parliament last year, that a global shift away from thermal coal use should require a transition and reskilling plan for Queensland workers and communities.
On the other hand, Queensland Labor’s coal-friendly policy shift last year means Trad is no favourite of the Stop Adani crowd. She says opponents of coalmining and the Adani Carmichael project in north Queensland have played into a binary, divisive narrative that has set back efforts to address the climate crisis.
“The convoy that went up to Clermont
[led by former Greens leader Bob Brown, before the federal election], there were no winners out of that,” Trad says.
“There was no outcome to that protest. There was no change in policy. It caused a great sense of anger and fear in the community and I guess my view as a progressive has been around achieving the change that’s necessary incrementally. You’ve got to bring people along, you can’t do it like that.
“I’ve sat down with so many people and had so many conversations on Adani, thermal coal, metallurgical coal – this is something that a lot of people want to talk about, and I understand that and I understand that climate change is making people fearful.
“What motivates me is how do we harness cheap clean electricity to create the industrial jobs that our community needs. There are many examples of industry moving towards renewable energy. It can make operations more competitive ... right throughout the state.”
Pressed on her position on the Adani coalmine, Trad says: “Again I think that points to a zero-sum outcome. At the end of the day, there are export markets and while the world continues to change to clean renewable energy those export markets will be functioning.
“I think communities are best placed to understand their own challenges, and to engage with policymakers around their own challenges. If we had 10 years ago adopted Kevin Rudd’s emissions trading scheme we would not be talking about these issues because quite frankly, we would have harnessed so much more cheap, clean renewable energy there would have been so much industrial change in Queensland.
“That is a perfect example of the zero-sum game of politics. On the left it got defeated because it wasn’t good enough. On the right it was too [strong].”
Last year, Trad was cleared by a Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission assessment of her purchase of a $700,000 investment property at Woolloongabba near the Cross River Rail project she oversaw. The CCC recommended legislative reforms as a result.
The CCC has now decided to launch a formal investigation – a step beyond the assessment of Trad’s house purchase – into the appointment process for a principal at a new South Brisbane high school and allegations Trad interfered. She denies knowing any of the candidates.
“It is an investigation under foot and I really can’t prejudice that investigation [by commenting], but I do see there’s an irony here in that the LNP are claiming there was interference in that process, but they’ve initiated a process with the CCC and want to interfere with that,” Trad says.
On Monday, having stepped away from the ministry, Trad announced on Facebook that she would recontest South Brisbane, where the Liberal National
party has pledged to direct preferences to the Greens and many pundits have written off her chances.
She was also expected to lose in 2017, but has consistently rejected suggestions she could move to a safer seat.
“This is my home, my lifelong home,” Trad says. “I’m really keen to get out and about in South Brisbane. What else we need to do as a community to make sure we are fairer, we don’t leave people behind. I got into politics … to actually improve the lives of people, I’m motivated by things like injustice and unfairness.
“It’s been a bruising time for me, but I’ve been so overwhelmed by support for people locally and I understand they have great ambitions to see some good things happen. Their unfinished business is my unfinished business.”
There’s a concerted campaign against me because I’ve stood up for the values my community care about.
Jackie Trad