Editor’s view: Integrity matters, so it’s time for Palaszczuk to deliver on Coaldrake Review

The longer implementation of the Coaldrake recommendations into the state’s public sector takes, the harder it is to take Annastacia Palaszczuk seriously when she says she cares about integrity in her administration, writes the editor.

Professor Peter Coaldrake’s landmark review last year into the state’s public sector highlighted the Palaszczuk government’s growing use of private-sector consultants – ostensibly because of a hollowing out of in-house expertise.

To help solve the problem, Professor Coaldrake recommended “the rejuvenation of the capability and capacity” of the public service and more robust accounting for the benefits derived from engaging consultants and contractors.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk gave the impression she fully supported the Coaldrake Review’s recommendations, immediately promising to implement them “lock, stock and barrel”.

But a year on and very little seems to have changed, certainly at least when it comes to the hiring of consultants to do public work.

Professor Peter Coaldrake.

A recent answer to a question on notice, for example, shows Queensland Health’s corporate arm spent $8m with just one of the big four consulting firms – Deloitte – in the past 12 months.

And that was the same spend as the previous year.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman responded evasively: “I won’t apologise for engaging experts to help keep Queenslanders safe, or to assist our hardworking frontline health care staff.”

Now there will always be times when the government needs the help of an outside expert firm – delivering a complex IT project for instance.

But Professor Coaldrake’s insight is not about the legitimate use of consultants, but rather what it says about the dwindling capacity of the Queensland public service.

He wrote in his report: “Providing quality analysis, advice, service design and delivery – and project management – are core skills for a contemporary public service.”

He then noted that “the review found that this capacity has been progressively eroded over time”.

And he went on: “Part of the problem is an identifiable loss of capacity in the public service, which has been accelerated by what is now an over-reliance on external contractors and consultants.”

Another problem is that the more work is outsourced, the less that same capacity is developed within the ranks of the public service.

But the problem is even deeper than that.

Those public agencies that commission outside expertise need to be confident they have enough in-house knowledge of the problem and possible solutions to know if they are purchasing the best outcome.

And without this capacity, Professor Coaldrake presciently warned, the government is potentially captive to advice and solutions that serve many interests, “none of which is fully aligned with ‘the service of the Queensland public”.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier-Mail

These issues, he said, could range from maximising private sector profit to unnecessary up-selling and favouring business partners or specific interest groups.

There is also the very real problem of consultants telling those who commissioned them exactly what they think they want to hear, so as to ensure future contracts.

The Palaszczuk government has for many months now claimed it is busy implementing all of the Coaldrake recommendations, and that it needs the time to get things right.

But the challenge is that actual progress is still hard to spot.

For example, last month’s state budget provided $18.6m over five years to help the Public Sector Commission “rejuvenate the public sector” and “drive substantial cultural and capability reforms”.

But we still have no detail at all about what that might mean.

The commission is apparently still developing its proposed program of work for consideration by cabinet, with no estimated time of delivery.

The political challenge is that the longer the implementation of the Coaldrake recommendations takes, the harder it is to take the Premier seriously when she says she cares about these matters of integrity in her administration.

That will surely soon start to worry Queenslanders.

Serious questions to answer about dingoes

Clearly, we are no experts when it comes to management of wild dogs.

But there will today no doubt be demands that more be done on K’Gari (Fraser Island) to control the dingoes that have grown more confident and aggressive than ever.

Queenslanders will demand answers as to why one of the pack of dogs that on Monday morning pursued a lone woman into the surf, where they then bit her 30 times was allowed to roam free, despite having already been identified by rangers as such a troublemaker it needed to be fitted with a tracker.

Sarah Peet arrives at Hervey Bay Hospital on Monday. Picture: Channel 7

Yes, many of the tourists on the island are not doing themselves any favours by feeding the dogs and posing for selfies.

And yes, these dingoes are wild animals and we are in their territory.

But surely more must be done to protect visits when individual dogs are deemed to be particularly risky.

Fortunately, the Brisbane woman who was the victim of yesterday’s attack is going to be fine, thanks to the courage of passers-by and the first-aid knowledge of her mum.

But it could have been so much worse.