Sarah Elks
Andrew Laming’s lament over travel expenses
G’day readers, Feeding the Chooks is back and better than ever, and it’s been a busy couple of weeks in Queensland politics. Read on.
LAMING’S LAMENT
Fresh from securing a six-figure payout in his defamation win over the Nine Network, former federal MP Andrew Laming is shaping-up for another fight – this time over travel expenses.
Last year, the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority slugged him with a $10,000 bill for trips to Hobart and Melbourne in 2019.
Laming spoke at a conference for ophthalmologists (he is a registered ophthalmologist) in Hobart and took his wife and kids along for the taxpayer-funded ride.
Part of the federal pollie package is to cover some travel for family each year, but the IPEA is contesting whether the main purpose of the trip was, in fact, parliamentary business as is required to meet the criteria to be claimed as an expense.
IPEA says conference organisers had not formally invited him and had only made room for him to speak after he contacted them at the last minute.
Laming has now provided them with texts from organisers that show he was invited about a week before the conference – after asking if he could “help informally” with the conference.
On the other trip, to a two-day horticulture conference in Melbourne, IPEA’s probe found Laming did not attend until the last day when he arrived well after the meal had already been served at the gala dinner.
Laming says he couldn’t make the entire conference, as planned, because of electorate commitments, and went along to the last hour of the dinner to meet stakeholders and he did that.
An internal review of IPEA’s decision has now been completed and, according to emails the Chooks have seen, found the audit did “not ignore, omit or dismiss information as indicated by your emails of 8 and 14 July 2022”.
“As allowed for under section 37 of the Parliamentary Business Resource Act 2017 (PBR Act), no contrary grounds were established in the information provided by you. There, there is no change to the outcome or findings of the Audit Report or Ruling,’’ the IPEA told him in July.
But Laming is refusing to back down and pay-up saying the agency went after him while he was the subject of the Nine Network allegations.
Next month, the matter will go for external review.
AS SURPRISED AS ANYBODY
Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles – the man who hopes to replace Annastacia Palaszczuk as Labor leader, should she ever decide to vacate the top job – was health minister in 2018.
Why is that noteworthy? 2018 is the year Queensland’s scandal-ridden forensics lab relaxed its DNA testing threshold, delivering potentially thousands of “untrue” witness statements in major criminal cases by wrongly finding there was insufficient DNA or non-existent DNA in evidence samples.
Pre-eminent barrister and former President of the Court of Appeal Walter Sofronoff delivered damning interim findings on Tuesday into the workings of the lab, ordering the lab immediately compile a list of affected cases and send to the police.
Miles – who according to the Government Gazette is Acting Premier from Friday until Palaszczuk returns to duty (understood to be before Monday’s Cabinet meeting) – was asked whether he knew of the policy change in 2018 as health minister.
“I was not aware of the issues that have now been raised, and obviously they’re very concerning. In my experience, the pathology staff that I dealt with were incredibly diligent and hardworking and so I’m as surprised as anybody to hear these concerns,” Miles said on Friday
But should he have known?
“Queensland Health is a very, very large organisation. These are technical decisions that by and large are made by the scientific services themselves. Obviously, if these concerns were raised at that time, I would have taken them very seriously. I’m concerned to hear them now. We are doing what we can now to get to the bottom of it,” Miles said.
Opposition deputy leader Jarrod Bleijie has called for current Health Minister Yvette D’Ath to be sacked.
“This is a complete failure of government, this is a complete failure of Yvette D’Ath,” Mr Bleijie said at a press conference on Friday morning.
“Annastacia Palaszczuk should sack Yvette D’Ath from her cabinet…she is not up to the job.”
Asked whether D’Ath’s job was safe, Miles said: “very much so”.
Sofronoff’s commission of inquiry starts public hearings on Monday, when hopefully more light will be shed on who knew what, when.
JOB HUNT
The Queensland Liberal National Party are having a hard time recruiting a replacement for outgoing state director Lincoln Folo.
Folo was announced as the new federal director of the Nationals last month, and is due to start up the new Canberra-based gig on December 5.
Described by a party member as “poisoned chalice,” the party’s state director oversees fundraising efforts, made more difficult by new donation caps and the 2019 ban on developer donations.
It will be an uphill battle for the new boss, with the LNP lagging behind union-backed Labor on the donation tally.
Since the start of the year, the ALP has raked in $2.7m in reconciled donations compared with the LNP on $1.6m.
“Donors and members are flat after the federal election,” an LNP insider said.
The Chooks hear there has been a push for former Brisbane MP Trevor Evans, who was ousted by the Greens at the May election, to have a crack at state director.
“They can try, but I doubt he would be interested,” another party insider said.
Evans, who was hassled by Chooks while trying to enjoy his honeymoon, would not comment.
The other name touted is Jake Smith, long-time advisor and ministerial chief of staff to both Lawrence Springborg (now LNP prez) and Barnaby Joyce.
Smith has been around the Queensland Nats and LNP for decades and is a savant of sorts in number crunching.
Interestingly, Smith – a bit of foodie - was also the author of a grand book that did well called: “Eating with Emperors: 150 Years of Dining with Emperors, Kings, Queens … and the Occasional Maharajah”.
Despite the speculation, the Chooks have been told that the state director job is definitely not on the menu for Smith.
STRAIT UP AND DOWN
The Palaszczuk ministry jetted north earlier this month to hold a Cabinet meeting in the gorgeous island archipelago that is the Torres Strait.
It gave the Premier’s ministers the chance to roll up their sleeves and do some work in one of the most remote areas of the state.
Of course, it wasn’t all government business. Labor state secretary Kate Flanders was on hand to help host an ALP branch meeting on Thursday Island on the evening of the Cabinet meeting, attended by Palaszczuk, Miles and other ministers including Meaghan Scanlon, Grace Grace, and Di Farmer.
Flanders – whose travel and accommodation were paid for by the Labor Party, not the state government - posted on social media that the gathering was extra special.
“We also welcomed new members to Queensland Labor last night, it’s a great time to be part of our movement,” Flanders said.
GO WEST
Labor lobbyist Evan Moorhead’s lobbying firm Anacta Strategies continues to snake its way around Australia, expanding into other states after Moorhead and his co-founder Dave Nelson were black-listed from lobbying the Palaszczuk government.
A landmark report by Peter Coaldrake condemned the practice – exposed by The Australian – of lobbyists also acting as political campaigners, which saw Palaszczuk ban Moorhead and Nelson as lobbyists in the state.
Moorhead and rival lobbyist Cameron Milner had helped run Palaszczuk’s successful 2020 re-election campaign from inside government headquarters at 1 William St. Milner has since shut down his old lobbying firm Next Level Strategic Services and started a new one with former Newman LNP government minister Scott Emerson, based in Canberra.
This week, Anacta opened its Perth operation, headhunting Mark Reed from the office of Labor Premier Mark McGowan, where he was strategic director.
It’s reminiscent of Moorhead’s own career trajectory, after he left Palaszczuk’s office as head of government strategy to set up the lobbying firm.
The Anacta announcement gushes: “With our offices now spanning New Zealand and right across Australia, the greatest challenge for our co-founders Evan Moorhead and David Nelson may be remembering what time zone they’re in!”
Anacta has lost a lot of business in Queensland this year, as controversy swirled about Moorhead and Nelson’s dual roles, with at least 18 clients dumping the firm according to the lobbyist register.
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