George St Beat: Miles all smiles as he tries Premier’s job on for size
A hefty pay packet is on offer for this government job - but whoever gets the gig has their work cut out for them dealing with the challenges of the state’s under pressure health system.
QLD Politics
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As The Courier-Mail revealed this week, there has been a surge in the number of workers leaving their jobs at several departments across the Queensland public service.
Well, we reckon we have found a job in the public service with a big enough pay packet that would be hard to give up.
Metro South Health has put out an ad for an executive director of media and communications. And the pay is a cool $232,786 to $251,813 per year – for looking after a single health district!
To put that into context, that is more than the base salary of $170,105 per year that our state MPs make.
It is even more than the $234,469 per year that Opposition health spokeswoman Ros Bates earns. (It is, though, about $100,000 less than Health Minister Yvette D’Ath’s $356,000 salary.)
According to the job description online, the gig involves media relations, web media, social media, branding and marketing, publications, and events management.
The job advertisement calls for someone with a high level of “political astuteness, judgment and senior communications experience”.
The successful candidate will manage a division with 20 employees and report to the “Chief People, Engagement, and Research Officer”.
The health facilities included within Metro South include the Princess Alexandra, Redland, Logan and the QEII Jubilee hospitals.
Although the pay packet is hefty, whoever gets the gig has a big job ahead amid the ongoing challenges facing the state’s under pressure health system. Only last week, it was revealed Metro South was one of the three hospital and health services sitting on the lowest possible performance rating that can be given by the state’s Health Department.
MILES ALL SMILES
The lack of an apparent successor to Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was a hot topic at the end of last year, largely thanks to former premier Peter Beattie’s criticism on the missing heir.
And with the Premier overseas for an extended holiday over the summer, we cannot help but notice that Deputy Premier Steven Miles has taken up the mantle of Acting Premier with great gusto.
Just in the past week Miles has held media conferences in the Sunshine Coast hinterland talking environment, headed to the Kholo bridge (also on the environment), flew north to Rockhampton with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, stopped in at Maryborough with Mark Bailey talking roads and showed up yesterday at the Port of Brisbane.
Whether it was an extended national park, or a Bruce Highway upgrade, a very jovial DP – sorry AP – was on hand. It brought back memories of Cameron Dick’s stint as Acting Premier last April, a period where we had never before seen so much of the Treasurer.
While the Premier has consistently said she will be the one leading the party at the 2024 election, it appears Miles is more than happy to get the practice in and prove he’s up to it – just in case, of course.
SHAYNE’S WARM WISHES
One of Queensland’s most controversial pollies in the past, Paul Pisasale, clearly still has a few friends in his corner – despite spending the past few years in the clink.
The disgraced former Ipswich mayor pleaded guilty in September 2020 to more than 30 charges including fraud, official corruption and sexual assault, and was dished out seven and a half years for his crimes. In December, he was released on parole.
So it was a bit odd to hear Federal MP Shayne Neumann “wish him and his wife well in the future” when asked at a press conference this week whether the man once known as “Mr Ipswich” should be asked to return his superannuation. Asked by another journo why he wished him well – given his crimes – Neumann said he “wished everybody well”.
“Paul did some good things for Ipswich, but he did some wrong things, and he’s pleaded guilty and that’s that,” he said, adding he hadn’t spoken to him since the drama unfolded.
DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I SCOOT
Probably anyone who spends time in Brisbane can attest to the rapid growth of people using e-scooters. It’s why Transport Minister Mark Bailey was at the Goodwill Bridge this week ramming home the government’s new legislation on safety rules.
But it got a little awkward when – right as a senior police officer was professing a crackdown on dodgy riders – the journos and photographers were offered a prolific line-up of passers-by openly flouting their rules in the background. On our count, more than a dozen riders without helmets and about half a dozen riders sharing scooters with kids zoomed past.
Clearly, if QPS and the government are looking for a place to start their latest crackdown, they found it.
Cheaper to help homeless than do nothing, report finds
The government would save half a million dollars per person, every decade, if it funded “supported’’ accommodation for the homeless a damning new report released says.
Hiding under the bed: Premier, you caused this mess, why don’t you fix it?
David Crisafulli was the presiding minister when the LNP let the loonies loose on water fluoridation, writes Robert Schwarten.