Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie Trad dissects her difficult year — including that controversial property investment

Months before Queensland voters swung Australian politics to the right in a federal election, Queensland's most powerful left-wing figure was privately expecting to come under attack.

Embattled Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie
Trad (R) has had a challenging political year.

But Jackie Trad could have had no inkling of the coal-fired savaging that awaited Labor in the bellwether state, or her own political battering in 2019 over an ill-fated property investment.

The Deputy Premier has had enemies and Labor party allies alike calling for her sacking, colleagues privately fretting that she has become toxic with voters, and tabloid pundits hailing her demise as a political force.

But at the end of a bruising year, it fell to Ms Trad as acting Premier to make the Queensland Government's last big call for 2019.

As Treasurer, she has pushed the button on the state's Land Restoration Fund (LRF), a half-billion-dollar "carbon farming" scheme touted as one of Australia's biggest climate change initiatives.

It comes fresh on the heels of Scott Morrison's bushfire holiday imbroglio, which beckons as a surprise window of political opportunity for the likes of Jackie Trad after what looks like the worst year of her career.

Read the ABC News story by Josh Robertson -“Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie Trad dissects her difficult year — including that controversial property investment.”