George St Beat: Qld politics news and gossip
The LNP has gone on the attack this week amid rumours former Labor MP and admitted vote stacker, turned senior bureaucrat, Mike Kaiser is to be elevated to lead the Premier’s department.
QLD Politics
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Rumours are swirling through the halls of power that one-time Labor MP and now State Development and Infrastructure Director-General Mike Kaiser could be tapped on the shoulder for the top ($800,000-plus) job in the Premier’s department.
So it was only a matter of time before the LNP swooped.
Of course, Kaiser was not only once a vocal Labor loyalist and state secretary, he was also stung for electoral fraud relating to branch stacking in … 1986.
Kaiser’s move from pollie to Labor staffer to public servant has caused controversy before, with Anna Bligh facing questions after her then chief-of-staff ended up with a $450k job at the NBN back in 2010.
The LNP were more than happy to drag up the dirt last estimates and again this week, with the Premier launching a strong defence of the one-time former Member for Woodridge (2001-02), labelling it “disgraceful”.
“Mike Kaiser is a very well-respected head of the Deputy Premier’s department … the LNP has shown its true colours, once again, attacking public servants,” she said.
Regardless, should Kaiser end up in the top job the LNP might have to keep their more vocal criticisms in check – with an election a scratch over 18 months away, you never know who might end up working with who.
Mr Kaiser hit back on Friday morning, saying he would “refuse to be cowered by my history”, posting on LinkedIn saying “I did a stupid thing when I was 22. At the time it was punishable by a $50 fine”.
“But 15 years later in 2000 I took accountability and lost my career because of it,” he said.
“I worked hard to rebuild, working for myself, as an adviser to two premiers and in the private sector.
“Now, 38 years later, I am privileged to serve the people of Queensland in a role I won on merit.
“Some will clearly never let it go. But my career has been richer for it. And I know I grow in strength by owning it every time it comes up, as it did again in parliament this week.”
QUESTIONS OVER TIMING OF BETTING GIANT’S DONATION
They say timing is everything, and Australia’s largest betting company donated a five-figure sum to the state opposition just 24 hours before an MP started asking questions about horse racing coverage.
Electoral Commission of Queensland donor logs show Tabcorp donated $11,000 to the LNP on March 28.
The next day Mermaid Beach MP Ray Stevens, amid question time, asked the Premier about the impact of Queensland’s lack of free-to-air coverage of horseracing.
“Can the Premier explain why Queensland is the only eastern state missing from free-to-air coverage of horseracing on Channel 7 and advise the house what cost this is to TAB turnover and tax revenue to Queenslanders?” he said – with his question prompting a few sniggers from the government, and a retort of “the last I looked, I was not the CEO of Channel 7” from the Premier.
But the opposition is adamant Mr Stevens didn’t know about the Tabcorp donation, nor had he had conversations with Tabcorp in recent days.
It’s understood the sizeable donation, though dubbed “functions”, was the gambling company’s membership fee for the LNP’s corporate observers program – now called “Solutions Queensland”.
HOWARD’S QUIET SHOW OF SUPPORT
It is almost unheard of for the presence of former prime minister John Howard not to be met with the bells and whistles befitting the second-longest serving Australian leader in history.
But a visit to state parliament to meet Opposition Leader David Crisafulli and deputy Jarrod Bleijie on Thursday was kept hush-hush until news of Mr Howard’s unmistakeable presence spread like wildfire.
It was later confirmed Mr Howard had “dropped in to see old friends” and “share his thoughts and support” for an LNP state government.
IN A SPIN
In a sign of the times, a petition has called on social media-loving pollies to disclose when their online posts are made by their gaggle of media spinners rather than themselves.
In a level-headed pitch, the creators of an official parliamentary petition want a change to “when a Minister or mayor delegates a function (to be) officially recorded”.
“If people other than the Minister or mayor are posting or publishing content on social media, as stand-ins for the Minister or mayor, these persons should be included as authors of the content” – requesting this be declared via a register.
The likes of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk do not disclose whether they or staff have made official online statements, although spotting the difference between a slightly out of focus beach shot and a carefully curated, photoshopped-to-death announcement is not the hardest task.
As we noted last week, the Palaszczuk social media team has cut sharing live streams of her press conferences, making her even less visible to the public on her favourite platforms (although, staff numbers will stay the same). The petition has been signed by more than 660 people, with more than two months to go.
PHINS UP … NORTH?
Katter’s Australian Party MP Shane Knuth was spotted wandering around parliament this week sporting a brand new Dolphins cap – what would usually be a controversial accessory for a north Queensland politician.
But Mr Knuth is, in his words, a “ridgy-didge” supporter of the NRL’s newest team. And it’s understood the team has been sending him merch, though not due to his political endeavours at all.
The Nationals-turned-KAP politician actually played 97 A-grade games for the Redcliffe Dolphins (pictured) and was with the team in 1987 when they fell short of a Brisbane Rugby League A-grade premiership. So it appears the dyed in the wool north Queenslander may be getting away with supporting the Cowboys back home and the Dolphins when he’s “down south”. It’s understood who he barracks for in a derby may depend on whose stadium he’s in on the day.
CROSSED AND RAILED
The CFMEU are never backward in coming forward, and this week they took quite the public swipe against Transport Minister Mark Bailey and his flagship Cross River Rail project.
Union boss Michael Ravbar publicly called on the Premier to “take ownership of this mess and fix it instead of leaving it to Mark ‘gonna’ Bailey to issue a few platitudes and then look the other way”.
Among CFMEU gripes over the project were allegations workers and the public were potentially exposed to silica dust, and blocking union access. Ravbar even, ironically, pulled a card from the opposition’s playbook, having a crack at the government’s record on “youth justice failings, or the affordable housing crisis.”
Of course it was hundreds of CFMEU members who last year stormed the Department of Transport, plunging the building into lockdown a day after Bailey had a meeting with Ravbar – though the Minister has repeatedly and strongly said he had no prior knowledge of the action.
WHAT’S IN A NAME
Check, check, check. Typos happen to the best of us but spare a thought for LNP Coomera Michael Crandon, with one of his branded electoral cars spotted sporting a rather significant error – his own name no less. Whoops.
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