Mark Bailey train scandal: Minister cleared despite fears $2.4 billion cost blowout affair threatens re-election hopes

Transport Minister Mark Bailey and his office have been cleared of wrongdoing following a $2.4 billion blowout in Queensland train manufacturing program.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk leads ministers including Mark Bailey (left) on a tour of the Downer rail manufacturing facility at Maryborough.

• Analysis: Premier will back Minister

Transport Minister Mark Bailey and his office have been cleared of wrongdoing following a $2.4 billion blowout in Queensland train manufacturing program.

The Department of Premier and Cabinet late on Monday revealed an investigation by John McKenna KC found Mr Bailey’s office had not “directed any public service employee” to remove a reference to the $9.4 billion cost of the program, $2.4 billion higher than forecast.

The investigation, however, did not detail the reasoning behind the deletion or whether Mr Bailey or his office had attempted to cover up the cost blowout, which the opposition has claimed.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Monday denied backbenchers had contacted her directly about frustrations they hold amid the ongoing $2.4 billion train manufacturing program cost blowout and cover-up.

Fed-up Labor MPs were expected to demand answers from Ms Palaszczuk over Mr Bailey’s train manufacturing scandal, amid fears it would haunt the government’s re-election hopes.

Minister for Transport Mark Bailey. Picture Lachie Millard

Several of the government’s senior members and backbenchers say the issue has become a damaging distraction for the third-term Palaszczuk government as it trails in the polls 14 months from the next election.

Labor’s 51 members – minus Curtis Pitt, who remains on medical leave – have convened for their first caucus meeting since The Courier-Mail revealed on the cost of the Maryborough Train Manufacturing Program had spiralled from $7.1 billion to $9.5 billion.

Mr Bailey was absent as is understood to be unwell, as are at least two other MPs.

Ms Palaszczuk said her phone was “always open” for backbenchers to ring “anytime, day or night” but that no one had contacted her about it.

She also declined to answer any questions on the review being undertaken by her director-general Rachel Hunter into communications between Transport Minister Mark Bailey’s office and public servants in the department.

Concerned backbenchers, many from Queensland’s regional electorates, were expected to question their leader over her poor handling of the Bailey matter after it emerged his office removed the true figure from a draft press release, hiding the blowout from Queenslanders.

One Labor MP said: “There’s a lot of angst on the back bench and the Premier’s going to have to do something. The back bench is restless because of the damage it’s doing to the government.”

Another backbencher from Mr Bailey’s Left-faction also declared it “a frustration”.

A senior government MP said the cover-up had proved to be a damaging distraction, but they doubted Ms Palaszczuk would turf Mr Bailey as she was known to have a soft spot for him despite his ongoing blunders – including the 2017 “Mangocube” email scandal.

“He hasn’t helped himself, and there’s a definite sense of frustration because it’s Bailey, again,” they said.

However, despite Labor MPs lining up to share their anger with The Courier-Mail, another senior MP denied there was any “rumbling” among backbenchers.

That MP claimed that while it had been a lengthy distraction for the government, there had been “more angst” when then health minister ­Yvette D’Ath was struggling to defend against LNP attacks on problems within the health system.

Ms Palaszczuk’s office did not answer questions on whether any backbenchers had raised concerns about the $2.4 billion cover-up and the government’s mishandling of the issue, or whether she intended to take further action.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman, speaking at the opening of the Redlands Satellite Hospital, admitted the train scandal had “clearly” been “a distraction”.

But she stood by the Transport Minister, saying he had been “really accountable” and had “taken responsibility and apologised”.

Ms Fentiman, asked what the silence of other CBRC ministers meant for accountability, said it wasn’t usual for ministers to make announcements outside their portfolio areas.

“The minister has apologised for the timing of the press release,” Ms Fentiman said.

“And we accept that apology and we’re all working hard to take pressure off Queensland families.

“But let’s not lose sight of the fact that this is all because we are now making trains here in Queensland again.”

Transport Minister Mark Bailey

Six years ago, Mr Bailey was discovered to have used a private email account – [e-mail] – to communicate with Ms Palaszczuk over government matters.

Mr Bailey then deleted the account – sparking accusations of corrupt conduct that he was later cleared of by the Crime and Corruption ­Commission.

For more than a month a number of senior MPs, including Ms Palaszczuk, have attempted to hose down Mr Bailey’s latest scandal.

It was first revealed by The Courier-Mail on July 14 that the cost of the Maryborough trains project had spiralled to $9.5 billion, and that it was kept hidden from Queenslanders. It emerged Mr Bailey’s office had deleted the true cost of the project from a draft press release, and later emailed the Transport and Main Roads department asking them not to use the figure in communications.

That email is now being investigated by Premier and Cabinet director-general Rachel Hunter.

It also emerged last week that the blowout had been approved by Cabinet’s Budget Review Committee on May 16, six weeks before Transport Minister Mark Bailey deleted it from a media release and eight before it was first revealed after it was quietly published on the transport department’s website.

Members of Mr Bailey’s Left faction, including its most senior member – Deputy Premier Steven Miles – have publicly backed the minister.

Ms Palaszczuk announced a mini Cabinet reshuffle in May in the health, housing and youth justice portfolios, which had emerged as three pain points for the government.

Under-fire Health Minister Ms D’Ath swapped roles with then Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman, Meaghan Scanlon took Leeanne Enoch’s housing portfolio and Di Farmer replaced Leanne Linard as youth justice minister.

Ms Palaszczuk has never removed a minister from Cabinet and has not sacked a minister from a portfolio since 2015 when Jo-Ann Miller was removed from police and emergency services. Ms Miller was reportedly offered another portfolio but instead quit and returned to the backbench.

It is unlikely Mr Bailey will be removed from cabinet, however, Assistant Local Government Minister Nikki Boyd or Assistant Energy Minister Lance McCallum – both from Labor’s Left faction – are thought to be the most likely replacements.