Opinion: Qld integrity report a lost opportunity

The timing of the Government’s release of the Coaldrake report into integrity demonstrates it has learnt nothing, writes Peter Gleeson.

The Coaldrake report is a lost opportunity to address significant and systemic culture and integrity issues which are hurting Queensland’s reputation.

The title of the report may well have been “Let the Sunshine In’’, but a dark cloud remains over the way in which the State Labor Government does business.

The most damning part of the 113-page report – written after Prof Coaldrake met with 100 former ministers and directors-general – was his assessment of the public service culture.

He said it had a “bullying, belittling culture, unwilling to give life to unfashionable points of view and dominated by short-term political thinking’’.

The 131-page report includes three mentions of a commission of inquiry, but unfortunately such an obvious and important way to deal with this issue was not one of the 14 recommendations.

Instead, Prof Coaldrake recommends tightening lobbying rules, which the Government has already indicated it will do, and Blind Freddy can see it needs structural reform.

Prof Coaldrake even talks about extending the powers of the Public Service Commission, the same body under investigation for allegedly raiding the Integrity Commissioner’s office and seizing a computer. How much power do they need?

Report author Professor Peter Coaldrake

The report refers to Right to Information requests, saying “we should not underestimate the level of apprehension, even fear, within departments about the consequences of being ‘caught’ by an RTI request’’.

“This situation fosters a culture predisposed to nondisclosure,’’ the report says.

Prof Coaldrake has identified the problems, but his recommendations don’t fix them.

There is clearly a dysfunction and a yearning to please masters further up the food chain within the public service, and a commission of inquiry would have got to the nub of these problems.

Instead, we have a Government which released the report just an hour before the 6pm news, to stymie media scrutiny.

It was the ultimate irony.

A government fending off substantive claims of cronyism, looking after its mates and public service dysfunction, releasing an important report after the siren has sounded.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the Coaldrake report was a “health check’’ for the Government.

Let’s hope it’s not a case of operation successful, patient died.