Opinion: Junior minister’s ironic train of thought on integrity report

In attempting to downplay the findings of the Coaldrake report, a Labor MP has highlighted the very issues it raises, writes Mike O’Connor.

You might wonder why when we have a state minister for transport who is responsible for trains, we also require the services of an assistant minister for train manufacturing.

There is no assistant minister for bus manufacturing or boat building or even banana growing, so what is it about trains that requires the energies and attentions of their very own assistant minister, one Bruce Saunders, the Labor member for the seat of Maryborough?

It was Mr Saunders, taking a break last week from the onerous responsibilities inherent in keeping an eye on train manufacturing, who alerted us to the possible existence of an anti-Labor plot rooted deep within the state public service.

Taking aim at those public servants who had contacted Professor Peter Coaldrake with concerns about government integrity, the activities of lobbyists and bullying and standover tactics by ministerial staffers, Mr Saunders said: “I’d like to see the names of those 14 submitters because I think there’d be a few of those submitters who are anti-Labor,” intimating there was a secret agenda within the public service aimed at portraying the Government in a bad light.

You might think the Government was doing a fair job of achieving this on its own and didn’t need any help from any fifth column of anti-Labor activists, but Mr Saunders was not about to be dissuaded.

What fate he had in mind for these 14 subversives who had been guaranteed anonymity by Prof Coaldrake was not made clear.

Should they be made to shave their heads and wear sackcloth and ashes for their heresy, be tarred and feathered or just given a good flogging in King George Square, causing any of their colleagues who might be entertaining any thoughts of blowing the whistle on ministerial misdeeds to think again?

Mr Saunders, who picks up an extra $87,912 on top of his MP’s salary of $159,000 for keeping one eye on the manufacture of trains and the other on the lookout for any anti-government conspiracies, can’t understand how any of the state’s 250,000 public servants – yes, there really are that many – could possibly entertain the thought that there were problems within the Government, for had he not announced that in his opinion, it was a “good” government.

Member for Maryborough and the Assistant Minister for Train Manufacturing Bruce Saunders

To be fair, if you were the member for Maryborough and the assistant minister for train manufacturing, then you could perhaps be forgiven for being a teensy bit touchy in the wake of Prof Coaldrake’s criticism of what seems to be a cosy relationship between the Government and certain lobbyists.

Labor campaigner Evan Moorhead’s firm Anacta Strategies in 2019 was engaged by Maryborough-based train manufacturer Downer Rail, part of the Sydney-based Downer Group, meeting with senior State Government officials 11 times in four months on behalf of Downer, with the nature of 10 of those meetings branded as “commercial in confidence”.

In December that year, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced that the Government, through Queensland Rail, had committing to spend $300 million with Downer for rail upgrades and maintenance at its Maryborough workshop.

Downer Rail is also one of three companies competing for a major contract to build 20 new trains in Maryborough, and will be in line to bid for an increased order of 65 trains, with the successful tenderer expected to be announced later this year.

Obviously, these matters are of some consequence to Mr Saunders, given that his chances of continuing to enjoy the high office of assistant minister must surely be enhanced by the prospect of ongoing government contracts being awarded to Maryborough, for of what use is an assistant minister for train manufacturing if there is no train manufacturing?

His prospects of continuing to represent the good folk of Maryborough and of one joyous day moving from assistant minister to being a “real” minister must be similarly enhanced by more work going to the city.

The irony is that in attempting to downplay the findings of the Coaldrake report, he has highlighted the very issues it raises.

Public servants who believe they are indeed servants of the public and not ministerial vassals paid to bend, twist or ignore the proper process of government are viewed as enemies of the state.

In Mr Saunders’ view, and it would be naive to think that he alone in the Government holds it, they are to be hunted down and exposed.

It would be nice to think that in the light of the Coaldrake report this will change, but that train, I suspect, has left the station.