Worries raised over lobbyist’s close ties to QLD Labor HQ
The multifaceted roles of a lobbyist, who happens to be the former chief strategist of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and one-time party secretary, have come into sharp focus following a foreboding warning by Queensland’s corruption watchdog.
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He’s the mild-mannered former Labor politician who didn’t graduate from the backbench during an uneventful two-term political career which ended abruptly in 2012.
However, the multifaceted roles of Evan Moorhead, the former chief strategist of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and party secretary, have come into sharp focus following a foreboding warning by Queensland’s corruption watchdog.
Crime and Corruption Commission chair Alan MacSporran took the extraordinary step last week of writing a letter to all state election candidates, in which he raised concerns about new corruption risks.
“The CCC’s own intelligence assessment indicates that the lines between government and the private sector are blurring, with overlapping networks of association involving consultants, influencers, lobbyists and executives,” he said.
Among political insiders, the lobbying industry and business leaders, all eyes turned to the government’s relationship with one man: Evan Moorhead.
There have been grumblings for some time about how Mr Moorhead has managed to parlay his time within the Premier’s inner sanctum into a successful lobbying career.
His firm, Anacta Strategies, jointly owned with Training Minister Shannon Fentiman’s ex-husband David Nelson, dominates the lobbying landscape.
What concerns industry veterans is how Mr Moorhead is managing to cash in at all ends of transactions, although he’s not accused of doing anything wrong or against the rules.
He knows what problems are before government because he works for them. He knows where Labor needs to make promises because he works for them. He knows how to deliver for big business and he works for them too.
And it’s all within the boundaries of Queensland’s “strict” lobbying laws.
Labor disclosure documents show the party paid Mr Moorhead’s Anacta $45,650 in the first six months of 2020 and he’s now embedded in the party’s core campaign team.
And two of the key commitments made by Ms Palaszczuk in recent weeks in regional Queensland have heavily favoured Mr Moorhead’s clients.
Swiss miner Glencore scored an undisclosed taxpayer-funded “incentive payment” for its Mount Isa and Townsville operations on September 23. Mr Moorhead was brought on as the miner’s lobbyist 35 days earlier.
Last week, Ms Palaszczuk announced $600m in untendered work for Maryborough’s Downer to build 20 Cross River Rail trains. Mr Moorhead has been retained by Downer since late 2019.
At the same time he’s also earnt $92,400 providing stakeholder engagement for the Cross River Rail Delivery Authority and $61,600 working for Queensland Rail.
Sources say the next Anacta client to win a campaign promise will be Griffith University.
Its Mt Gravatt campus will become a movie studio and in exchange it will get space at CRR’s Roma St site.
One senior industry figure is appalled, warning the whole industry would eventually suffer a reckoning as a result.
“I have seldom seen poorer judgment from government and the corporate sector,” the veteran said.
Yet while she welcomed Mr MacSporran’s contribution, and warned candidates about the need for high standards, Ms Palaszczuk sidestepped questions about Mr Moorhead.
“The state secretary is running the campaign from party office,” Ms Palaszczuk said. “You’d have to ask her that.”