‘Business as usual’ lands Palaszczuk’s Labor in hot water – as it should

“Business as usual”. The three words were all it took from the minister again in charge of Queensland’s youth justice system to almost entirely capture one of the more extraordinary recent weeks of democracy done Maroon-style.

That business was buried in a mountain of changes – some to allow the continued detention of kids and teens in police watch houses – slotted into an unrelated bill and sailed through parliament by the third-term Palaszczuk Labor government without scrutiny or consultation.

Some of Labor’s own state MPs have reached the point of publicly, though anonymously, questioning the direction of the party under Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk – now on a two-week overseas holiday.Credit: Nordacious (aka James Hillier)

Despite the ridicule and outrage provoked, the nothing-to-see-here label applied by Di Farmer to a move including Labor’s second ever bypass of its own human rights laws this year was mostly true.

The exception? There was at least the charade of procedure the first time. Then again, this is a government which last year cheered the centenary of its forebears abolishing the state’s upper house of parliament.

It took many decades after Queensland was left alone among other Australian states with only a lower house before an alternative started to take some real shape.

Our system of essentially government-controlled parliamentary committees are supposed to give the scrutiny required and expected of our democratically elected governments, whatever the party in power.

In his landmark review of government culture and accountability last year, Professor Peter Coaldrake wrote about the “raw, unrestrained ‘winner takes all’ style” of politics in this state which had emerged as a result.

He also wrote about a “trivialising” of the committee system. We have done the same. It should now be abundantly clear that the broader parliamentary system is also being made a mockery of.

It’s relatively common these days to see related (and unrelated) tweaks tacked onto bills already being debated in parliament with little notice. Often they have been recommended after a public consultation period through one of those government-controlled committees.

Though what happened last week went beyond what I’ve seen in my few years covering this place closely.

Inserted into a bill originally dealing with child sex offender laws, which even members of Labor’s own backbench had been gearing up to speak on, Police Minister Mark Ryan announced the raft of amendments also including:

• Decriminalising begging and public drunkenness
• Scrapping some sex-work specific police powers
• Validating some police discipline matters

While the first two on that list can boast broad and long-standing particularly progressive support, none were formally presented by the government to the committees for consideration as part of proposed laws.

Non-government MPs, from the LNP (somewhat hypocritically), the Greens and Katter’s Australian Party, to Noosa independent Sandy Bolton, rightly fumed at the move.

(Government figures, publicly and privately, then sought to portray those thinking of voting against the bill on principle as either against the progressive amendments or soft on child sex offenders.)

Former Speaker and Labor minister John Mickel, now an adjunct associate professor at the Queensland University of Technology, told me last week any government was setting a dangerous precedent by defying proper process.

“That, in my view, is a slippery slope,” he said. A slope able to be exploited by others should they hold power, or leading to unintended consequences through rushed laws.

“So in the cold, hard light of day at the end of this ... what the government should do is take a deep breath and go back and revert to the committee system.”

On process and content, some of Labor’s own state MPs have reached the point of publicly (though anonymously) expressing frustration about the leadership of the party under Palaszczuk – now on a two-week overseas holiday – amid souring polls.

As any actual government engagement on proposed reforms shows, the Queensland community is open to big ideas and discussion about them, from household budgets to statewide visions.

While still attuned to community concerns around crime, justice experts are again calling for focus on evidence-based efforts to tackle the causes – not knee-jerk reactions likely to worsen them.

Public debate is happening around areas such as housing and tax reform pressing on households from a federal level as well – even if some are questioning their speed. Around climate, too, where governments continue to approve new coal mines despite global warnings not to.

We are well past the point of needing something beyond “business as usual” in our politics. The new depths plumbed in Queensland parliament last week are not it.

Heads up

• Capalaba Labor MP Don Brown, in charge of wrangling party mates in parliament as chief whip, has landed himself in personal trouble with some high-profile crime victims and senior government members after labelling a Sunday night TV news story a “beat-up” in a now deleted Facebook post.

Catch up

• Asked about contradictions in some of the LNP’s own slogan-heavy and expert-questioned ideas on youth justice, namely scrapping detention as a last resort while also improving early intervention, leader David Crisafulli argued on Monday the two “work perfectly together”.