George St Beat: Tweets send Bailey’s excuses off the rails

We predicted in our last George St Beat column that the Transport Minister was the pollie most under pressure rolling into budget estimates. Turns out we were right.

We predicted in our last column Transport Minister Mark Bailey was the pollie most under pressure rolling into budget estimates. We were right.

The Minister’s woes only escalated this week thanks to the revelation his office had removed the true cost of the Queensland Trains Manufacturing Program blowout from a draft media release provided by Transport and Main Roads.

Asked why he didn’t raise the alarm that the media release had been finalised with the wrong figure before announcing the secured contract on June 30 in Maryborough, he blamed a jam-packed morning.

“(I was) flying from Brisbane to Rocky in a propeller plane, did the press conference, straight back in the plane, down to Maryborough, into the PPE, to the next press conference. So I was in the air most of the time on Friday morning,” he said.

Minister for Transport and Main Roads Mark Bailey. Picture: NCA NewsWIRE / John Gass

But we know Mr Bailey loves a bit of tweeting – having racked up more than 26,000 of them. So we checked if he managed any time on that hectic day – too hectic to read a media release – for any social media action.

He did.

First up on that Friday was a selfie saying: “A big Friday ahead … I’ll keep you posted.” Then, as he said, it was on to Rockhampton to announce heavy construction work would finally begin on the trouble-plagued ring road project. Mr Bailey then took the time to have a crack at Senator Matt Canavan for letterbox-dropping about Labor not funding the ring road, saying “you couldn’t make it up”.

(Of course, this was the same project Mr Bailey’s colleague MP Barry O’Rourke threatened to quit the party over, with a leaked text message to the Transport Minister saying he had “totally f — ked (it) up …” and telling him if he didn’t announce funding “I’m out”.)

Mr Bailey also managed to find time to have a crack at Opposition Leader David Crisafulli in two tweets over the Auditor-General’s report into the Wellcamp facility, posting “(Crisafulli) exposed again for spinning & lying for political gain”.

And, finally, he posted about “train manufacturing returns to Maryborough & Qld with signing of Downer contract!” – without mentioning any cost, despite knowing it was $2.4bn extra than first flagged.

Minister for Transport Mark Bailey with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk at the Downer Rail Manufacturing facility in Maryborough. Picture: Lachie Millard

BAILEY BAILS

But Mr Bailey did front the press on Wednesday afternoon after revelations about the deletion of the blown-put figure, amid calls for him to resign.

After a spiel about what had transpired (plus a few LNP jabs thrown in for good measure) the Minister said: “I think the gallery knows I don’t hide when things get tough. I’m here to answer your questions.” It was a promising start, and so he did take questions – for about 25 minutes.

That was before his media advisor called last questions, despite several members of the pack urging they had more for Mr Bailey.

Despite government ministers – including Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk – almost always taking all questions until exhausted from the gallery, Mr Bailey bailed.

His advisor said any further questions could be sent via email – which we did.

There was no response.

SCANLON SUPPORT

Housing Minister, and partner of Mark Bailey, Meaghan Scanlon. Picture: Liam Kidston

Given the furore swirling over the issue and the threat it could result in Mr Bailey’s sacking, news outlets took to live-streaming his grilling from the parliament press pack on Wednesday.

We spied his media conference was viewed by his partner – Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon. The Cabinet couple generally keeps a low-profile after going public with the relationship in 2018.

Ms Scanlon told The Courier-Mail in February that while spending time together, “neither of us wants to talk about the intricacies of our portfolios ... it’s just more like you would talk to any partner about the news of the day”.

Given Mr Bailey has been on the front page several times this week, we wonder if that counts as news of the day.

SORRY SORRY SORRY

Apologies were being thrown around this week about the whole sorry trains debacle.

Grilled over her role, Ms Palaszczuk – whose name was also on the press release containing the old, not-blown-out figure – made an awkward stumble while apparently saying sorry. “The minister has apologised and, on behalf of Queenslanders, I also apologise,” she said.