Analysis: The most concerning thing about disaster boss’s holiday in midst of a cyclone
The decision by Queensland’s disaster review boss to fly overseas during Alfred exposes poor judgement by himself and the Emergency Services Minister, writes Hayden Johnson.
Opinion
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Queensland’s disaster review boss is the latest to fail that pesky pub test – but more concerning is the government’s response to it.
Alistair Dawson’s decision to fly overseas in the middle of Tropical Cyclone Alfred exposed the poor judgement of himself and Emergency Services Minister Dan Purdie – who approved the leave well before the event but didn’t think to ask it be cancelled.
Mr Purdie’s chief of staff – and probably media adviser – would have been expected to cancel their leave during the disaster so why shouldn’t the highly-paid man whose job it is to oversee and review the state’s disaster response?
It would be like the Electoral Commissioner of Queensland boarding a flight to Bora Bora as the government calls a snap by-election.
A conga line of ministers – led by Premier David Crisafulli – on Thursday dismissed or deflected any criticism of Mr Dawson’s holiday during a natural disaster.
Mr Crisafulli’s insistence his job “kicks into gear after an event”, simultaneously misses the point and proves it.
Mr Dawson won’t do his job after this event, because he wasn’t there for some of the worst of it.
A key responsibility of his $356,000 job has been farmed out to Acting Inspector-General Kylie Mercer.
How quickly the moral high ground espoused by politicians in opposition erodes once they grasp the levers of power and the buck stops with them.
You can bet it would have been a different response if Labor was in government.
In September the LNP’s chief spear thrower Jarrod Bleijie rightly skewered Premier Steven Miles’s for taking an 11-minute flight on the government jet.
“It doesn’t pass the pub test,” Mr Bleijie said.
But the well-paid Inspector-General of Emergency Management scanning his passport in the middle of a natural disaster?
Don’t you worry about that.
Originally published as Analysis: The most concerning thing about disaster boss’s holiday in midst of a cyclone
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