Corruption watchdog wants urgent law change to overthrow secrecy
Will Annastacia Palaszczuk listen to Queensland’s corruption watchdog and allow it to release a secret report into her former deputy?
G’day, and welcome to the latest edition of Feeding the Chooks, your weekly insight into the behind-the-scene machinations of Queensland politics.
PALASZCZUK’S INTEGRITY TEST
Is Annastacia Palaszczuk going to listen to Queensland’s corruption watchdog, or will she allow an explosive report into Jackie Trad and the alleged politicisation of the state’s public service to stay secret?
Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission boss Bruce Barbour on Friday called for the Palaszczuk government to urgently change the law to allow the publication of findings from its investigations, including a report into divisive former Deputy Premier Trad.
Unless the government acts, the probe into Trad’s involvement in a senior public servant’s appointment will remain suppressed, after a bombshell High Court decision on Wednesday relating to a CCC report into Labor’s former Public Trustee Peter Carne.
Chooks previously revealed the Trad inquiry also delved into the politicisation of the Palaszczuk administration’s recruitment of other senior bureaucrats since it came to power in 2015.
The Trad report was finished in early 2021, but the former Deputy Premier launched Supreme Court legal action to keep it secret.
And remember, Palaszczuk and then-Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman signed off on taxpayer-funded lawyers to argue Trad’s case.
CCC chair Barbour told a parliamentary committee on Friday that law changes were needed to ensure the watchdog could publicly report on its investigations, even if corrupt conduct had not been found.
(Trad has denied any wrongdoing, and Chooks understands the CCC report did not recommend charges.)
“We believe that such reports serve the public interest and they promote public confidence in the integrity of the public sector,” he said.
Barbour says the new legislation needs to be retrospective, to force the release of the Trad and Carne documents, and other outstanding reports.
This will be a stark test of Palaszczuk’s self-vaunted commitment to transparency and good governance; will she change the law?
OUTWIT. OUTPLAY. OUTLAST.
Annastacia Palaszczuk has survived one of the most consequential weeks of her political career – but could it be a temporary reprieve?
The Premier jetted back into Brisbane after her Neapolitan vacanza, staring down her colleagues who had been white-anting her leadership for a fortnight.
But senior Labor figures tell Chooks that – as revealed by The Australian on Tuesday – Palaszczuk is safe for now, only because there is no consensus candidate to replace her.
“The peace won’t last for long … once there are numbers for a single candidate, it’s likely to be on,” a senior Labor source told Chooks.
NEWMAN KNOCKOUT
There were so many parliamentary manoeuvres Annastacia Palaszczuk might have used to wrestle attention away from the rats in her ranks this week.
In the end though, she fell back on the tried and true Campbell Newman knockout.
The former LNP premier was mentioned no fewer than 35 times in parliament this week.
Chooks hears the mere mention of Newman’s name continues to send ALP-commissioned focus groups into a frenzy.
But after almost nine years in power, is this the best the Premier can come up with?
RENNICK LAWYERS UP
Queensland Senator Gerard Rennick has marshalled a legal team over his ousting from the Liberal National Party ticket for the next federal election.
Chooks understands the controversial first-term senator has engaged a solicitor and silk for advice on whether he can take the LNP to court over the running of the preselection ballot in July.
If it goes ahead, the legal action will centre on the LNP’s failure to hold a roll call and questions over the eligibility of five voters and the party denying a vote to no less than federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton.
A refresher: the LNP state council delivered challenger and party treasurer Stuart Fraser 131 votes to Rennick’s 128 in the run-off round between the two for the third spot on the LNP ticket.
Rennick appealed to the party, alleging voter irregularities.
Chooks revealed that Dutton, a Rennick supporter, was told by LNP officials he had no right to vote (he couldn’t physically make the ballot) without a parliamentarian delivering his proxy.
But Fraser supporters – Nationals leader David Littleproud and Brisbane Mayor Adrian Schrinner – were given permission for their proxies to be delivered the same way that Dutton proposed.
The explanation is that it was just a “honest” mistake Dutton was given the wrong advice.
The LNP investigated and delivered its report, saying Rennick had no case even though it found Dutton was wrongly denied a vote and two others shouldn’t have been allowed a vote – which makes three, the difference in the outcome.
Rennick’s legal eagles are understood to be looking at whether the LNP followed the letter of the law of the Electoral Act in holding preselections, including having a record of each person who voted.
But the possible legal case may not be a slam dunk.
Section 173 of the Electoral Act says a preselection ballot is not invalid “only” because “someone voted in contravention of (a) the model procedures; or (b) the party’s constitution”.
LNP INVESTIGATES KIDS CLUB
Chooks hears there are a few interesting developments in the playground scrap between rival Liberal clubs at the University of Queensland.
Readers may remember that there were allegations of financial irregularities and secret banks accounts with one club, which included political staffers among its office holders, and legal threats from the LNP action to close down an emerging club at UQ.
A formal complaint about the actions of the UQ Menzies Society, later renamed the UQ Liberal National Society, has prompted the LNP to refer it to the party’s disputes committee for investigation.
That probe was kicked-off a week or so ago.
It is understood that much of what was previously canvassed by Chooks forms a lot of the complaint, along with purported copies of documents relating to bank account and invoices.
On the other side of the biff, the LNP has also referred office holders of the newly-formed UQ Liberal National Club, headed by Emma Goodwin – daughter of businessman and LNP factional player David Goodwin – to the disputes committee for investigation.
You would recall that the LNP sent Goodwin and the club a legal letter saying the club did not have its backing and couldn’t use its brand.
The club seems to have ignored the threat and is now affiliated with the Labor-led Student Union as the Liberal club on campus.
That decision was affirmed at a meeting of the student union this week.
It’s all so dramatic, who would have thought student politics could be so much fun.
QLD COPS IT
The cavalcade of critics lining up to kick the Palaszczuk government for its approach to youth crime continues to grow.
Just before Annastacia Palaszczuk flew to Italy, Labor had a terrible week in parliament, overriding its own human rights act to shove through eleventh-hour legislative amendments to ensure kids as young as 10 could be locked up in police watch houses and adult prisons.
Not only have lawyers, a former boss of the Australian Federal Police, the LNP, and the Greens, slammed the amendments, now representatives of other Labor governments around the country have joined the chorus.
Members of the Australian National Preventative Mechanism, appointed or nominated by the federal government, and the governments in the ACT, Northern Territory and WA to implement the United Nations’ protocol against cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment issued a damning statement.
“Police watch houses are not designed for long-term detention, and neither watch houses nor adult correctional facilities are designed for children,” the statement says.
“We are gravely concerned about the long-term and indefinite detention of children in Queensland in these highly unsuitable environments, noting reports of extended periods in solitary confinement, no access to necessary child-appropriate facilities, and limited natural light, fresh air, exercise, and activity opportunities.”
“Given the significant rates of incarceration of First Nations peoples of all ages, including in Queensland, we are also concerned the Queensland Government’s actions will have a disproportionate impact on First Nations children, who already face other sustained, compounded challenges.”
LONELY ON LNP’S LEFT WING
Gold Coast Liberal National Party MP Sam O’Connor is often an outlier in the conservative party.
The 32-year-old has drawn the ire of some of his colleagues for his vocal support of the “yes” campaign ahead of the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum, and on Friday will join Cape York leader Noel Pearson at a Griffith University voice event on the coast. He’s the LNP’s spokesman for the environment and the Great Barrier Reef, and perhaps unsurprisingly, takes a keen interest in climate change mitigation and the transition to renewable energy.
And he and Moggil LNP MP and doctor Christian Rowan backed pill-testing a few years back, before the LNP declared a position against the practice.
For all of these reasons, O’Connor is castigated by some elements of the LNP membership as a “leftie” moderate, in contrast to former PM John Howard’s doctrine that the Liberal Party is a “broad church”.
O’Connor’s success as a local member speaks for itself. When he won Bonney in 2017, the margin was just 1.7 per cent. At the 2020 poll, he attracted a primary vote swing of 9 per cent to him, defying a swing against the LNP on the coast.
Will his moderate views hinder the young MP’s ability to rise through the ranks?
According to his Gold Coast LNP colleague, Surfers MP John-Paul Langbroek, probably.
In a social media video posted on Thursday morning ahead of the last sitting of parliament for the week, Langbroek and O’Connor were joined by Deb Frecklington, the erstwhile leader of the LNP.
“Well viewers, today we have an interesting visitor, the 36th leader of the Opposition in Queensland (Deb Frecklington),” Langbroek narrates.
“I, of course, am the 33rd (leader of the Opposition), and Sam, unfortunately because of his craaazy left-wing stuff, will probably never be.”
GABBA REVIEW
A federal Senate inquiry has demanded an urgent review into the $2.7bn Gabba rebuild for the Brisbane Olympics.
The inquiry, chaired by Nationals senator Matt Canavan, found it may be “unwise and inappropriate” for Palaszczuk’s government to insist on using the Gabba to host athletics at the 2032 Games.
“The review should consider the feasibility of alternative options, including using existing infrastructure, and work to find a solution that is acceptable to these communities,” said the inquiry’s interim report published on Friday.
In “additional” comments to the report, Labor senators Glenn Sterle and Linda White said the Gabba revamp was “a matter for the Queensland Government”.
It is a matter for Queensland because their federal friends in the Albanese government walked away from the revamp after being spooked by a 170 per cent blowout in the project’s preliminary costings.
DICK SAYS KONNICHIWA
Treasurer Cameron Dick hopes to warm frosty relations with Queensland’s top trading partner, Japan, after last year’s public showdown over his controversial coal royalty scheme.
Dick will make a one-night stopover in Tokyo on Friday to press the flesh, after Japanese Ambassador Yamagami Shingo last July took aim at the Treasurer’s royalty hike, warning it could cost investment in the state.
He’ll be talking metallurgical coal with Japan’s biggest steelmaker, Nippon Steel, before attending a 70-person investor dinner Friday night with exporters and resources companies.
RETURN OF THE SPEAKER
Labor Speaker Curtis Pitt is back in the House. He’s been given a third chance to redeem himself, after a couple of eyebrow-raising appearances in the Speaker’s chair in which the Mulgrave MP twice slurred his way through Question Time.
After a regional parliament sitting in Cairns in May, Pitt told Chooks he was suffering from the flu, and not the effects of late-night drinks, when he slept in, had to be woken by police, turned up late to parliament, and slurred his words.
This week, after a period of leave to look after his physical and mental health, Pitt kept it together. If he stays sharp, Chooks hears he’s likely to keep the Speaker’s role until the October 2024 election.
Labor is determined to maintain a veneer of stability through Annastacia Palaszczuk’s leadership wobbles.
But could Pitt be one of the Labor MPs confirming an exit at the next election, after the Premier gave her comrades a seven-week deadline to decide whether they’ll fight alongside her in 2024?
The Speaker’s office tells Chooks he plans to contest the next election.
MP OFFSIDE
Question Time had barely kicked off in Canberra on Tuesday, when MPs were mystified at the sound of a footy referee’s whistle echoing through the House of Representatives chamber.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton was asking Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum when the whistle blast cut through the rarefied air, followed by the unmistakeable sound of a football stadium.
Nationals leader David Littleproud was caught on camera looking around quizzically to find the source of the sporty interjection.
So who was the culprit?
A painstaking Chooks investigation has confirmed the footy fan was West Australian MP Andrew Hastie.
The former soldier confessed to Chooks that he loves rugby, grew up playing it, and “the only thing I enjoy more than the game itself is watching the French beat the All Blacks”.
“France won earlier in the week 27-13 (in the Rugby World Cup),” Hastie confided. “Before QT, I watched the highlights. But I didn’t close the internet browser properly. My staff sent me a text and I went to open the phone. The highlight reel started again just as Peter rose to ask a question. That’s why you can hear the referee blowing his whistle as he starts at the Despatch Box.”
Hastie copped a stern rebuke from the Speaker, Queenslander Milton Dick, and was almost sent off the field with a red card.
SPOTTED
For the purpose of spreading joy, here is a photo of Agriculture Minister Mark Furner shearing a sheep.
Furner, who represents the outer-Brisbane seat of Ferny Grove, might have looked the part in his Jackie Howe singlet but he could do with a few pointers from Gregory MP Lachie Millar.
Millar, whose outback electorate covers historic sheep towns of Blackall and Barcaldine, has clicked the shears once or twice in his time.
Chooks hears Furner put in a gallant effort, but nicked his finger in the excitement of it all.
Millar said Furner could have done with a semester in the sheep shearing course at the Longreach Pastoral College, which his department shut in 2019.
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