Editor’s view: Bailey must go after admitting to $2.4bn cover-up

Surely this is the last straw for the state’s trouble-prone Transport Minister Mark Bailey. He must be removed from the ministry, writes The Editor.

Surely this is the last straw for the state’s trouble-prone Transport Minister Mark Bailey. He must be removed from the ministry.

That is now the only electorally palatable conclusion to the sorry saga of Minister Bailey’s ham-fisted attempts to deliberately hide from Queenslanders a whopping $2.4 billion blowout in the cost of the Palaszczuk Government’s train manufacturing program.

But the Premier also has some significant explaining to do today. She has now been caught out too –as either having been complicit in her Minister’s deliberate decision to try and hide from Queenslanders the cost blowout, or for having paid so little attention to such significant matters of state that it might be time she considers if the job is still demanding her full attention.

The revelation of the blowout has dogged the government for weeks. It began when it was noticed last month that the official website for the train building program in the Labor-held seat of Maryborough had been quietly updated (it turns out on June 30) with the new total cost – $9.5 billion, up from the $7.1 billion it had been previously.

Minister for Transport and Main Roads Mark Bailey. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

That the update was made with no announcement of the fact is bad enough. But the bigger problem is that on that very same day, the Premier and Minister Bailey had issued a joint press release (with Maryborough MP Bruce Saunders, the “Assistant Minister for Train Manufacturing”) which stated three times that the total cost of the program was still $7.1 billion.

It was not until two weeks later that the updated figure on the website was noticed, and The Courier-Mail on July 14 reported on that under the front page headline: “Secret $2.4bn train blowout.”

That led to a flustered Minister Bailey later that day admitting he had indeed known about the blowout prior to the June 30 press release being issued.

Bizarrely, Mr Bailey explained that he did not disclose the blowout at the time because “we put (the new cost) out there on the world wide web and we basically can’t be more transparent than that”.

That trainwreck of a press conference from Minister Bailey was on a Friday. The next Monday the Premier was asked if she had also known about the blowout ahead of the press release being issued – not only because her name was on the top of it, but because it also included a quote from her that repeated the old figure. She replied: “Not to my knowledge. I’ll have to go and double-check.”

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

A full week later the Premier was standing with Minister Bailey at a press conference on the Gold Coast when he was asked again if he had told Ms Palaszczuk about the blowout before the press release being issued in both of their names.

The Premier stepped forward and conceded that she “went back and double-checked, and yes, the Minister did” – as in, Mr Bailey had indeed informed the Premier of the cost blowout BEFORE the press release was issued in their names.

Minister Bailey swiftly said he would “take responsibility” as “the line Minister” – and that he wanted to “apologise sincerely”. But the Opposition just as swiftly pointed out the apparent fact that the Premier had just admitted she had approved “a false press release”.

Fast-forward to yesterday and the Premier was asked four times by Opposition Leader David Crisafulli in a parliament estimates hearing if she had approved the June 30 press release. The reason being, that by then she knew the cost that was included in it was wrong. The Premier simply refused to answer.

Instead, she said: “The matters have been addressed extensively. The minister has apologised. It should have been updated at the same time as the departmental website. We apologise to Queenslanders.”

Enter Minister Bailey again, who last night revealed – stunningly – that his department had provided a draft of the press release to his office on June 19 that had included the full new cost of the program – $9.5 billion – and that his office had removed that figure “and that no other figure was added in its place”.

Mr Bailey said: “I approved this version, and it was provided to the Premier’s office” – an explanation that suggests it was someone in the Premier’s office that put the $7.1 billion back in the release.

And so, we have here a Minister who has admitted to deliberately withholding from Queenslanders a $2.4 billion cost blowout. This is a disgraceful admission.

But the same Minister has also just suggested the Premier was either complicit in this cover-up (having either personally signed off on a quote from her that included the old outdated cost, a cost that she knew by then was wrong) – or just plain lazy (having allowed her staff to do so on her behalf).

Minister Bailey last night said: “I acknowledged responsibility for this error last week. Staff were counselled and both the Premier and I have apologised.”

But that is not good enough. This is not the way government should be done. We have here a Minister who has now admitted his office deliberately deleted a figure to mislead Queenslanders over a $2.4 billion cost blowout. If the Premier does not act, she sets a worrying new low standard for her ministry.