Queensland Rail fed Minister storyline over rail fail

TRANSPORT Minister Stirling Hinchliffe’s office had Queensland Rail script his reply to questions about the train timetable meltdown, emails released under Right to Information reveal.

Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe was almost entirely led by QR in the early weeks of the timetable crisis. Picture: Mark Cranitch

• Minister snubbed board meeting invite
• Trad ‘knew about’ train timetable disaster

TRANSPORT Minister Stirling Hinchliffe’s office had Queensland Rail script his reply to questions about the train timetable meltdown, emails released under Right to Information reveal.

They show Mr Hinchliffe’s office entrusted QR to draft his response to the debacle despite weeks of service cancellations and questions about the severity of its driver shortage.

Mr Hinchliffe was almost entirely led by QR in the early weeks of the crisis, according to the documents, despite his having ultimate responsibility for the rail body.

His office was sent questions by The Courier-Mail on October 11 about whether QR was doing enough to warn commuters about cancellations after major disruptions that day. The minister was also asked whether enough was being done to prevent train cancellations. Mr Hinchliffe’s assistant ministerial adviser Tim Auguston forwarded the questions to QR minutes later asking for it to respond.

A senior QR media officer replied by drafting comments to be attributed to Mr ­Hinchliffe.

The comments say Mr Hinchliffe was “disappointed” that commuters were inconvenienced. It was also suggested that Mr Hinchliffe should reply: “I have instructed Queensland Rail to intensify its efforts to make sure customers get earlier notice of service changes”.

The comments were then sent verbatim to The Courier-Mail from the Minister’s ­office.

Documents show Mr Hinchliffe only began demanding answers later that month when he called a meeting of transport bosses to explain more than 100 service cancellations.

He blamed QR for failing to brief him on the problems ahead of the Redcliffe line opening, but emails show Deputy Premier Jackie Trad’s office had been passed detailed notes about the shortages over a year before the line was opened.

The tip-off, from an anonymous caller who worked at QR, warned in October 2015 that shortages would cause a “disastrous situation” for the Government, but it was ­ignored.

Emails also reveal Transport Director-General Neil Scales tried to limit damaging publicity by delaying plans to hit QR with fines for failing to meet standards.