Scrapped ‘CFMEU’ tax’s $17bn saving a state secret
Treasurer David Janetzki has redacted all but two lines of a 44-page briefing detailing how the government will save $17bn by abolishing the controversial “CFMEU tax”.
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Documents supposedly detailing how the government will save an eye-watering $17bn by abolishing Labor’s controversial “CFMEU tax” have been kept secret, with Treasurer David Janetzki refusing to reveal why.
A 44-page document showing what advice Mr Janetzki received on cost escalations due to the Best Practice Industry Conditions policy – the LNP has called the CFMEU tax – was released to The Courier-Mail under Right to Information.
However, all but two lines were redacted due to it being linked to Cabinet, which automatically excludes it from freedom of information laws.
The 44 pages contain email correspondence and attachments between Director-General of Housing and Public Works Mark Cridland and Mr Janetzki on November 8, with the subject “Cabinet submission”.
“The attached version now has final RED LINE issues from agencies included,” Mr Cridland wrote.
“It is being distributed by the CLLO (Cabinet Legislation and Liaison Officer) now to Ministers for approval.”
The BPIC suspension was announced by the government less than a week later on November 14.
The Coaldrake Review found a growing trend of overusing cabinet confidentiality provisions to shield information from public access, including unnecessarily labelling documents as “cabinet-in-confidence” when they did not meet confidentiality criteria.
Despite a requirement to release papers relating to Cabinet decisions within 30 days, the government is yet to publicly publish any documents relating to the BPIC suspension.
Questions to Mr Janetzki asking why the documents had not been released, and how the government calculated it could save $17bn by abolishing BPIC, went unanswered.
Instead, the Treasurer trumpeted the government’s move to axe the policy.
“The construction sector, tradies, small businesses, Queenslanders and Treasury have sounded the alarm on the out-of-control blowouts Labor’s CFMEU tax was heaping upon projects and taxpayers,” he said.
“That is why Cabinet made the decision to suspend BPICs while the Productivity Commission gets to work.”
As of February, the government has uploaded just five cabinet documents.
None address critical policy decisions made by the state government, including its contentious scrapping of the Truth Telling Inquiry, Making Queensland Safer legislation or the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games review.
After Labor’s successful 2020 re-election, the Palaszczuk government uploaded eight documents within one month relating to Cabinet policy decisions.
Opposition Leader Steven Miles has accused the government of purposely withholding cabinet documents that reflect poorly on policy, like the LNP’s signature Adult Crime Adult Time laws.
The state government maintains it is releasing documents under “the same framework” as the former Labor government.
Originally published as Scrapped ‘CFMEU’ tax’s $17bn saving a state secret
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