Queensland election 2017: Labor’s dirty little secrets
THE 2017 election campaign will go down in history as the one that exposed the Palaszczuk Government as a house of secrets. And we’re paying for it.
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SADLY, the 2017 election campaign will go down in history as the one that exposed the Palaszczuk Government as a house of secrets. And some dirty little secrets at that.
Part 1: Adani, energy and rail fail
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk did not trust the people enough to take them into her confidence in the imbroglio involving her lover.
We had no idea she had a serious conflict of interest until she called a snap press conference to reveal her partner, Shaun Drabsch, had worked at PwC, helping to secure a $1 billion federal infrastructure loan for Adani’s rail link from its coal mine to the port.
Palaszczuk should have come clean much earlier, explaining her dilemma and removing herself from the Cabinet deliberations.
Instead she squirrelled her conflict away with the Integrity Commissioner, whose office I suspect, has become a repository for other dirty little secrets by cabinet colleagues and public servants masking everything from commercial conflicts to nepotism and lobbying.
Palaszczuk made it worse by churlishly saying she would veto the Adani loan, thereby putting the $16.5 billion project – and 10,000 jobs – at risk.
In its slogan, Labor says it puts people first. Hardly.
Palaszczuk may give the impression she is a caring suburban housewife but that is an illusion.
She put union fat cats first every time, while punishing working families with higher and higher power bills and car rego fees.
You pay and pay as Palaszczuk inflates the public service to provide a financial windfall for her union cronies.
How much you will pay to subsidise 18 new large-scale renewable energy projects is perhaps the biggest secret of all.
I’m not against renewables but they must pay for themselves. Labor’s aspiration to achieve a 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030 is nothing but delusional.
Energy Minister Mark Bailey, chastised by the Crime and Corruption Commission over a secret email trail, will not tell us how much taxpayer money is going to prop up renewables.
He says financial arrangements for projects such as solar farms are commercial-in-confidence.
Taxpayers could end up paying $900 million too much.
Next, we learned Labor rejected building a coal-fired power station in North Queensland and hid a secret government report saying it could provide secure power for the cyclone-ravaged region, reduce emissions and cut energy wastage.
If there was a good reason not to build the high efficiency low emission station, Labor failed to provide one.
The only conclusion I can draw is that the Greens wouldn’t let them.
Labor again ran for cover choosing secrecy over transparency when asked about a confidential deal to grant windfall wages of more than $206,000 to state electricity industry workers.
The new agreement to appease the militant Electrical Trades Union that funds the ALP shows skilled electricians’ pay boost came from generous overtime loadings of up to 22.5 per cent in new 10-day rosters.
The extravagance of the pays are outlined in a draft Enterprise Bargaining Agreement.
No wonder our power bills are soaring.
The wages windfall for the unionists comes at a time when the pay rates of non-government workers have stagnated.
Bailey, a former ETU member, refused to release the draft agreement and did not want to talk about it.
Energy Queensland is a closed union shop.
Fat cat energy chiefs who recently awarded themselves bonuses of up to $80,000, seem to me to have put up little resistance to the union’s excessive demands.
No wonder the ETU is campaigning so vigorously for the ALP.
Earlier this year we heard about secrecy at another union closed shop – Queensland Rail.
Diligent investigative reporting by The Courier-Mail’s Kelmeny Fraser showed QR was sitting on a secret stash of ready-to-go job applicants when it put the brakes on hiring desperately needed drivers.
The shortage of drivers caused the rail debacle that stopped trains and left vulnerable commuters stranded on the platform.
A Commission of Inquiry earlier this year found QR had a culture of hiding bad news, even from its board.
The driver shortage was created deliberately so drivers could rort their overtime.
Inquisitor Phillip Strachan’s report tabled in Parliament said that one of the “underlying issues” that caused the timetable meltdown was “Queensland Rail preferring to operate with a 5 to 10 per cent undersupply of train crew, driven largely by a practice of providing overtime opportunities”.
So how did Transport Minister move to remedy this transgression?
She didn’t.
QR recently approved a new enterprise bargaining agreement enshrining union power and preserving the closed shop.
Trad approved the agreement. She capitulated – as Labor ministers always do.
Part 2: Child Safety criticisms wiped from record
ANGRY foster carers complained they felt “disempowered and intimidated” by Queensland’s Child Safety department.
The negative comments came after carers and kinship workers were asked to express their views at a series of workshops around Queensland.
When they did express their views, however, the views were expunged from the final report.
A draft report said: “Some carers expressed that in their experience they feel disempowered and intimidated in their dealings with the department.”
The carers said they felt more like a client than a partner.
“Carers reported they experienced ‘negativity and push-back’ from the department when advocating the interests of the child,” the draft report said.
These comments were either sanitised of left out completely in the final report, prompting shadow child safety minister Ros Bates to accuse the department of attempting to sweep problems under the carpet.
“The report was altered because it contained damning allegations against the department,” she said.
“It’s typical of a department in crisis. They will try to stop the public understanding the depth of the problem.”
There were 17 workshops around Queensland in April and June at Ipswich, Lake Kawana, Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Logan, Maryborough, Mount Isa, Mount Gravatt and Nerang.
A briefing document obtained by Bates in a Right to Information search said the sessions were “independently facilitated” with foster carers invited to raise contentious issues.
A senior Child Safety officer told me the department was disappointed that only 249 carers from a total of nearly 4000 bothered to attend.
Bates said the department was scrambling to improve its performance in the wake of several violent deaths of children in state care.
The Courier-Mail revealed the extent of the crisis in 2016 when a baby boy who died a violent death at Caboolture was found to have suffered other horrific injuries in his home four months earlier.
In a tragic bungle, Mason Jet Lee was sent home by Child Safety officers when he should have been taken into care.
Yesterday, Bates accused Child Safety Minister Shannon Fentiman of hiding even more child deaths from public glare.
The department blocked the release of a 457-page report detailing deaths in the last financial year. A similar RTI the previous year was successful.
Meanwhile, the department is engulfed in a fresh crisis with the death in August of a respected foster carer who said in a suicide note that the Queensland Child Safety department had driven her to her death.
Bonny George was 46 when she took her own life after false accusations about her behaviour. She cared for eight children. There are two investigations into her death under way.
A spokeswoman for the department said: “We are committed to learning from this tragedy.
“We will take the time to review the case and address any concerns raised by the family.
“We have commissioned an investigation into the concerns raised regarding the conduct of departmental staff, with an external provider undertaking an ethical standards investigation. At the same time, a separate external provider is conducting a broad review of the practice and decision-making regarding the children, Ms George and her family.’’
The department did not say who the external provider would be.
Bates said the LNP would not be satisfied unless there was a full independent inquiry.
NICHOLLS PLAYS IT TOO SAFE
WHY couldn’t Tim Nicholls be more like Campbell Newman?
I thought the LNP leader played it a little too safe in The Courier-Mail Peoples’ Forum televised on Sky this week.
There were a couple of times during the debate when Nicholls could have socked it to the Premier good and proper. But he held back. What a pity.
He was too gentlemanly. Politics is a blood sport and I would like to have seen Nicholls take it to Annastacia Palaszczuk over her incredible Adani comments.
Perhaps Nicholls was being polite to avoid any comparisons with Newman, a true warrior for the conservative cause who punished the ALP before being cut down, too early, in his prime.
That said, I think Nicholls handled himself pretty well during the debate and I score him a 7, well above the points allocated by some of my colleagues.
And I thought the Premier’s performance was predictable, unremarkable and uninspiring and deserving no more than a 4.
The real winner was LNP defector Steve Dickson, the One Nation leader, who not only showed his hunger and conviction but a real understanding of how this old curiosity state works. He gets an 8.
I could see Dicko being a real force as One Nation leader in a coalition/alliance/gang with the LNP. Frankly, I can’t see how such a pact would be any worse than a Labor/Greens/union alliance. And if you think that is too much of a risk, don’t vote for a minor party.
Labor, meanwhile, believes it is gaining ground in vital Brisbane and regional seats and believes it may pull off a surprise victory. While conceding it will lose seats north of Rockhampton, Labor believes it is within striking distance in Redland, Mansfield, Mount Ommaney and Glass House.
Labor does finish strongly. It has come from behind in similar tight contests. And why wouldn’t it finish strongly with all the financial support it gets from unions?
Electoral Commission disclosures show Labor was getting huge licks of funding from the CFMEU. Other unions offering gifts or donations include the Council of Unions, the National Union of Workers, the Maritime Union, the Australian Meat Industry Employers Union, United Voice, the TWU, Together Union, RBTU, ETU and the CPSU.
The disclosures show the party also got gifts or donations of $1600 from the Building Employees Redundancy Trust and an additional $5360 from Mates in Construction, a CFMEU charity
A UNION DIVIDED
THERE is great disharmony in the CFMEU mining division with two of the union’s father figures mysteriously declining life membership.
Outgoing General Secretary Andrew Vickers and national returning officer Greg Betts formally wrote to union chiefs rejecting the offer. Both have retired after long careers in the mining industry.
I’m told president Steve Smyth who lives in Mackay was furious with the snub that comes at a time when the district’s financials are under great scrutiny.
Indeed one of Vickers’ last assignments was to write a report on the Queensland district’s financial standing. Vickers chastised the union at a recent board of management meeting.
I’m told there are now ongoing issues involving state payroll tax payments.
As well as an internal audit the CFMEU mining division is under scrutiny from the Registered Organisations Commission.
The new industrial watchdog is investigating property deals involving the union. And it has sought more information about credit card spending by mining division officials.
This followed revelations that Smyth used his union Mastercard to pay for meals at fancy Las Vegas restaurants, Whitsunday cruises and even dentist and butcher shop bills.
Smyth denies wrongdoing and said he paid some money back. He has refused to provide details. His union says he was on official business when he incurred thousands of dollars in expenses.
Earlier this year I also revealed an independent auditor had raised questions over the use of credit cards by a number of executives in the branch. Jason Croston of SRJ Walker Wayland said credit card expenses for the 2016 financial year totalled $721,116. He found there was insufficient evidence to verify that the credit card expenses were incurred solely for business purposes.
Vickers told colleagues the union had been served with a demand from the ROC to provide information about transactions involving a little known Mine Workers Trust and National Assistance Fund.
There are other problems. District secretary Tim Whyte has had a falling out with union chiefs and is on stress leave. A Facebook post said he was not expected to return to work.
GIFTS FOR CANDIDATES
PROMINENT Brisbane radiologist Dr Philip Dubois has put up $2000 to back Anthony Shorten, the LNP candidate in the new seat of Toohey.
Shorten hopes to defeat Labor’s Peter Russo who held the seat of Sunnybank under the old boundaries. Rosso was named Australian of the Year in 2007 for his successful defence of Gold Coast doctor Mohamed Haneef, falsely accused of helping terrorists.
The sprawling seat of Toohey straddles Sunnybank, Eight Mile Plains, Macgregor, Coopers Plains and parts of Rocklea, Moorooka and Runcorn.
Meanwhile, shadow treasurer Scott Emerson’s campaign has been given a boost with the $5000 gift from Craggy Range Wines.
One wonders whether it was in cash or kind. He is contesting the new seat of Maiwar which covers much of the former electorates of Indooroopilly and Mount Coot-tha. Maiwar is an aboriginal word for the Brisbane River.
Katter’s Australian Party is running candidates in 11 northern and western seats. All but one of them, Jenny Whitney in Whitsunday, are blokes. KAP has received funding from the shooters’ union and firearms dealers, according to the Electoral Commission.
DEBT FEAR
QUEENSLANDERS are paying $1.7 billion a year in interest alone on a colossal state debt of $72 billion.
That debt is expected to exceed $81 billion by 2020.
I’m amazed the ballooning debt and Labor’s fiscal ineptitude has not been on the radar in the election campaign so far.
Irritant of the week
FRASER Anning, the mysterious One Nation dummy-spitter who sensationally quit the party after being sworn in as a senator. You could hardly call him a team player. Anning replaced Malcolm Roberts, who was forced out in the dual citizenship debacle.
He said what!?
“THE main issue in this campaign ought to be fiscal consolidation and burgeoning debt, yet it has totally gone missing. It is just so disappointing the way in which Queensland’s fiscal position has deteriorated in the past 20 years.’’ Former treasurer Keith De Lacy on the election bogeyman that dare not speak its name.
Originally published as Queensland election 2017: Labor’s dirty little secrets
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