Union right to flex muscle over de Brenni on corrections funding

The ability to see which side one’s bread is buttered has long been a trademark of Queensland politicians and Mick de Brenni has shown he’s no exception, writes Mike O’Connor.

IF you want to experience discomfort, then wedging yourself between a rock and a hard place will generally do it.

Those doubting this proposition should seek the opinion of Queensland’s Housing Minister Mick de Brenni who found himself so disposed last week.

Minister, MPs attend protest against one of their own, earning rebuke

Jailbreak fears raised over budget cuts

The rock was the Labor — or to give it the title so beloved by the Premier — the Palaszczuk Government.

The hard place was the United Voice union of which he was once assistant secretary, de Brenni being one of a number of Labor MLAs who owe their nicely padded seats in the Legislative Assembly to that union’s muscle.

Mick de Brenni with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk at a function in Brisbane last month. Picture: David Clark/AAP k

The union, which numbers corrections officers among its members, thinks that Labor’s — sorry, Palaszczuk’s — Police Minister Mark Ryan, who is responsible for prisons, is a dope and wants him dumped.

No believer in the power of understatement, the union has said he should be “charged with murder” or grievous bodily harm should a corrections officer be harmed due to overcrowding and short staffing in the state’s prisons.

To underline this, union members protested outside the Government’s executive building placing de Brenni in a delicate position.

On the one hand, he was a minister of the Crown and bound by the principle of cabinet solidarity and loyalty to Annastacia Palaszczuk. On the other, his union mates were demanding he side with them.

The ability to quickly decide on which side one’s bread is buttered has long been a trademark of Queensland politicians and de Brenni, no exception to the rule, quickly lined up with the union.

The message to the electorate was clear. The Premier might sit in the big chair and be driven around in the big car but come the crunch, it was the unions that were calling the shots.

Her lack of authority was there for all to see. De Brenni has said he has apologised for his attendance. Of course he has.

The Premier’s office, in an attempt to save face, has said that de Brenni has been “counselled”. He was, in fact, given a severe flogging with a wet lettuce leaf. It must have been an interesting conversation.

The United Voice state secretary Gary Bullock hasn’t been counselled, and isn’t likely to be. He has, in fact, increased the inflammatory rhetoric by accusing the Premier of being “all talk and no action” with regard to the prison system.

Where’s that wet lettuce leaf?

And what of our hapless Police Minister Ryan?

United Voice state secretary Gary Bullock. Picture: Peter Wallis

Between July 2013 and July 2018, assaults on prison officers increased by 142 per cent with prisons in Queensland at 125 per cent capacity.

In a submission to the Crime and Corruption Commission, United Voice said “the correctional facility environment in Queensland private correctional facilities is typically characterised by conflict and violence; overcrowding; prisoners isolated for prolonged periods of time and living in proximity; chronic understaffing; and elevated risks to the safety of prison staff.”

It would seem that the union has a case.

Bullock has accused the Government of trying to save money by running prisons on the cheap and that, of course, is the rub.

There is no money. Billions of dollars of infrastructure projects and the jobs that go with them are on hold and awaiting government funding, while the state’s debt is projected to hit $83 billion within three years.

United Voice’s decision to turn on Palaszczuk is but a symptom of this malaise.

[e-mail]