Comment: Palaszczuk spin doctoring reaches shameful heights

The truth is being turned on its head by government spin doctors who have started to enlist outside commentators to spruik the Labor line, writes columnist Des Houghton.

Freedom of the press is under threat from a new direction.

Big Brother State Government has set up a rival news service that usurps the traditional reporting by journalists working in print, online and electronic media outlets.

That is the only conclusion I can reach after reading government press statements in which
Palaszczuk propagandists provide statements from ministers, then add supporting quotes from people outside the government.

That’s right, we taxpayers are paying for government spin doctors to enlist outsiders to support Labor’s left-wing agenda.

I find it all deeply troubling.

It’s overreach and I think it is improper. This dubious new service surely is at odds with the public servant’s code of conduct that stresses the need for integrity and impartiality.

A key sentence says all government workers have “a duty to provide advice which is objective, independent, apolitical and impartial”.

I think there is something not quite right in recruiting private citizens to praise Labor ministers.

The great risk is that truth will be turned upside down in press releases.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk joins P&O to celebrate 90 years of cruising, Pacific Encounter, Pinkenba. Picture: Liam Kidston

A dive into the archive shows a beekeeper, a gold miner, a cruise ship operator, an Olympic official, an RSL boss, an art gallery director, a robotics engineer, regional mayors and industry groups are all quoted in official releases.

I don’t blame any of these outside parties who may be unwittingly drawn into the controversy, or believe they’ve done anything wrong.

In an assignment for Sky News, I happened to be on board P&O’s handsome Pacific Encounter at the Port of Brisbane recently to hear the Premier say 118 ships would visit Queensland this year, injecting more than $500 million into the state’s economy. Great.

Later, I was surprised to see the official government press release containing comments from Carnival Australia and P&O Cruises president, Marguerite Fitzgerald, who went out of her way to thank the government for supporting her firm.

Here I have no criticism of Fitzgerald whose cruise liners provide great holidays.

And I get it. Corporations have to maintain cordial relationships with government.

Many outside commentators quoted in government media statements trumpet the Labor line. Imagine if Fitzgerald had criticised the State Government for being too slow to upgrade the Port of Brisbane for bigger ships, or too slow to dredge the channel off Townsville to allow P&O ships to berth there?

Of course such comments would never have made it into the release.

I got another insight into the propaganda wars during a perfectly respectful – and enlightening – debate between two giants of the Olympic movement, John Coates and David Higgins.

Queenslander Sir David, knighted for his work as chief executive of the 2012 London Olympics delivery authority, scorned Palaszczuk’s Brisbane Games power grab.

Sir David said planning had to be done at arm’s length from the government with bipartisan political support.

And the taxpayer who had to pay for it had to be told what was happening every step of the way.

“You’ve got to have a clear brief, proper governance and an independent board so that it can work with the various sporting bodies and the IOC,’’ he told me.

Coates disagreed. He said the Brisbane Olympic model was fine, and he approved of government departments building Games infrastructure.

John Coates at the announcement of the CEO of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Cindy Hook. Picture: Richard Walker

The first I heard about that was not in a call from Coates or a release from the IOC but in a press release – from the Queensland Government.

So has the great John Coates been “captured” by the government? I don’t think so, but I still found it odd he allowed partisan politicians to become his spokesmen.

Coates is a towering figure in international sport. He is nobody’s puppet.

Remember how he slapped down Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk when she said she was not going to attend the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony?

She showed up after Coates rebuked her and said it would be an insult to the Olympic movement if she failed to go.

As vice-president of the International Olympic Committee Coates is a seasoned global diplomat in a role akin to being a vice-president of a nation.

In her memoir Body Lengths, our great Olympic breaststroker Leisel Jones shows how the IOC puts itself above all nations by insisting its flag flies higher over the Olympic stadium than all other flags, including the emblem of the host nation.

So that makes it all the more intriguing that Coates allowed himself to be a mouthpiece for a government in decline.

Recruiting outsiders shows just how desperate the government is in “controlling the message”.

It’s a trait common to all failing governments.

The Premier refuses to say how many spin doctors work for Cabinet ministers and government departments, but the number exceeds the total number of journalists employed by The Courier-Mail and the ABC combined.

Queensland Youth Justice Minister Leanne Linard. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Their main role is to protect the government by hiding bad news and quelling dissent.

We got a glimpse into the unsavoury world of Palaszczuk spin doctoring this week with the release of texts and emails showing senior staff scrambling to rejig youth justice policy 15 minutes before Palaszczuk was to launch it.

The backroom drama followed the alleged stabbing murder of Emma Lovell at North Lakes on Boxing Day last year.

Youth Justice Minister Leanne Linard was coached on how to address the media and given “Draft LNP attack lines”.

Callously, the Palaszczuk spinners seemed more concerned about the political fallout than a genuine youth crime plan.