Editorial: Premier’s rehiring of Rachel Hunter a monumental stuff-up

That nobody in the Premier’s orbit thought the rehiring of the state’s former public service boss just weeks after she was paid $400,000 to resign was a problem, is the problem, writes the editor.

The rehiring is the first major stuff-up from Queensland Premier Steven Miles, writes the editor. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

That nobody in the Premier’s orbit thought the rehiring of the state’s former public service boss just weeks after paying her $400,000 to leave was a problem, is the problem.

It is a problem because it suggests the born-to-rule mentality that had dangerously crept into the upper ranks of the former Palaszczuk administration after nine years in power is apparently still the mood on the top floors of the executive building at 1 William St.

It is a problem because we have a premier who seemingly thinks that not one of the almost 250,000 public servants already on the payroll are qualified to conduct a review of how government money is being spent by charities.

It is a problem that the coterie of trusted aides attached to this administration seems unchanged from that of an administration that apparently needed to be so urgently usurped before Christmas.

And it is a problem because it seems that not one of the small army of advisers around the Premier who are paid handsomely to give political counsel could provide the quality of advice that you would get – for free – from the very first punter you find in the front bar of any pub in Queensland.

Rachel Hunter. Picture: Liam Kidston

None of this is to say that former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s public service boss Rachel Hunter is not qualified to conduct the Miles government’s review into the state’s homelessness services system. After decades of public sector leadership, she surely is.

And Premier Miles was at least fleet-footed enough to mop the mess up by quickly convincing Ms Hunter late on Wednesday night to work for free – in the no-doubt frantic minutes after The Courier-Mail asked how much she would be getting paid to conduct the review.

We then learnt yesterday from Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon that the recommendation for Ms Hunter to lead the review had come from her and not the sector, making a mockery of claims to The Courier-Mail on Wednesday night from the Premier’s office that it had been the sector that had requested Ms Hunter perform the review.

This is a debacle, a monumental stuff-up – and the first big one of Mr Miles’s leadership.

It comes just six weeks since Ms Palaszczuk was forced to resign when the Labor caucus turned on her due to both poor opinion polls and their patience with the chaos and cockiness in her office and leadership style having run out.

It is of course yet to be seen whether this will be a turning point for Premier Miles, who had been doing a good job of both distancing himself from Ms Palaszczuk and convincing Queenslanders that he is a “humble suburban dad”.

That is because the sorry saga indicates that Mr Miles – and those around him – are not in touch with voter sentiment. In an election year that is a dangerous thing indeed.

This saga is also a reminder that we have a group of ministers who are so comfortable with the trappings of power that they have come to consider government cash as play money, and powerful taxpayer-funded appointments as gigs reserved for people they already know. It is not a good sign.

One of the first meetings Mr Miles arranged after becoming Premier was with the respected Professor Peter Coaldrake, the vastly experienced bureaucrat, who conducted a necessary review into the culture of the state’s public service two years ago.

The Coaldrake review warned of the importance that all government appointments were made through a correct process, and it lamented the hollowing out of the public service as successive administrations have started to rely more on (expensive) contractors and consultants than existing in-house expertise.

The Premier emerged from that meeting saying it was “great to discuss how we can ensure … (the) public service remains strong”.

He followed it up with an email to all 246,000 public servants that said he expected they would “assist the government to implement our priorities, but that you will also tell us when there are new and better ways of doing things”.

We have congratulated him for this on a number of occasions. It was the right message to send to a public service that was feeling it had to cower to the executive – a very dangerous culture in a democracy.

However, we have already noted in this column this week that what matters is not so much the talk you talk but the walk you walk.

We made that point on Wednesday when suggesting here that Mr Miles needed to be more fulsome in responding to claims by the opposition that his former chief of staff was recently appointed to a newly created role in the Premier’s department without that position having been advertised, and with no merit-based selection process.

We said it then, and we repeat it here today: There might be nothing wrong with how an appointment is made, but perception is the reality – and so potentially also the problem.

Mr Miles would perhaps do well to take some time over this weekend to reflect on the very advice he gave to public servants in that email just a month ago.

In that email, he wrote: “Above all, I expect you to always keep in mind that while you work for the government, your overriding loyalty is to the people of Queensland.”