Queensland’s opposition leader has been labelled a “Judas goat” after a string of Labor frontbenchers skipped part of state parliament, resulting in chaotic debate in the House.
Shadow police minister Glenn Butcher, shadow energy minister Lance McCallum, shadow environment minister Leanne Linard, shadow tourism minister Michael Healy, and Greenslopes MP Joe Kelly all missed the morning session, including question time, claiming their time was better served in the regions.
The government moved a censure motion, the first since 2011, against the opposition to note the parliament’s official disapproval of the absences.
In fiery scenes, Premier David Crisafulli gave a stinging assessment of the missing Labor MPs in the House.
“I see a lot of vacant seats surrounding the leader of the opposition,” he said.
“This place here is where you want to turn up and do some work, Queenslanders expect you to turn up and do some work.”
Opposition leader Steven Miles defended his team in parliament, which he said was informing voters of failures in the state budget, delivered yesterday.
“The LNP might think governing is all about Brisbane and all about the parliament, but on this side of the House we will continue to and in fact never apologise for travelling around the state and spending time in regional Queensland,” he said.
“We made a deliberate choice today to make sure that regional Queenslanders knew how this LNP government had let them down.”
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie went on to attack Mr Miles in parliament, labelling the absences the “biggest farce” he’d seen in 16 years as an MP.
He dubbed the opposition leader a “Judas goat” — a reference to a goat trained to lead other animals to slaughter.
MPs defend their absences
Speaking in his Cairns electorate, Mr Healy said he was best served talking to locals.
“It doesn’t matter how I vote, the government has the numbers, what I need to be doing is representing the people up here.”
Mr McCallum, an Ipswich-based MP, said he was in Mackay to convey Labor’s concerns about the state’s finances.
“As part of a robust democracy, it is very important that the opposition holds the government to account, and we’re going to take it to David Crisafulli and the LNP and call them out for their broken promises, which is what this budget is full of,” he said.
Member for Gladstone, Mr Butcher, said he was in Rockhampton to call out a “bad budget” and would be returning to parliament on Wednesday afternoon.
“We will be sitting till midnight every night this week, so there’s plenty of time to go through and do the discussion on the budget we need to,” he said.
The opposition’s lone Gold Coast MP Meaghan Scanlon left parliament early to deliver a press conference in her electorate, Gaven.
She said the move was to communicate budget cuts during her “lunchbreak” and that she would return to Brisbane later on Wednesday.
“We’ve had MPs on the ground making sure communities know the damage that’s been done in this budget,” she said.
Politics versus parliament
Former Labor MP and Queensland speaker, adjunct professor John Mickel, said there was no rule requiring politicians to attend parliament.
He said the opposition was prioritising political messaging over the House.
“Labor in the last election did not just do poorly in the regions, they did badly in the regions, and you can’t win Queensland, you can’t win government back unless you do well in the regions,” he said.
“I have an old-fashioned view that when parliament is sitting, the executive is held to account, and they are held to account in the first instance in question time.”
He noted parliament provided a space to scrutinise the government and its budget.
“That’s where you can ask the treasurer about his budget, where you can ask ministers about their budget and why they haven’t spent or misspent money in regions,” he said.
“It is a better look if they’re all there, challenging the government.”
Labor MPs previously critical of parliament absences
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, in 2023, now shadow health minister Mark Bailey called out Greens MP Amy MacMahon for leaving parliament early.
Current shadow emergency minister Nikki Boyd and former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk also criticised the South Brisbane MP.
Responding to comments defending Ms MacMahon, Mr Bailey doubled down.
“Calling out an [sic] Member of Parliament for not turning up to Parliament while it is sitting is accountability & scrutiny.”
Wednesday’s censure motion passed with the votes of the government.
The last such motion occurred in 2011, when Labor premier Anna Bligh censured the opposition for being absent from the chamber for debate, allowing her government to pass three pieces of legislation without debate.