Feeding the Chooks: High Court twist in Jackie Trad’s bid to keep report secret
Jackie Trad’s taxpayer-funded legal fight to keep a lid on a corruption report into her has got even more interesting.
G’day readers, and welcome to the latest edition of Feeding the Chooks, our behind-the-scenes look at Queensland politics.
TRAD’S CASE HITS THE PITTS
Jackie Trad’s taxpayer-funded legal fight to keep secret a Crime and Corruption Commission report into her has got even more interesting with the man she rolled as treasurer joining in on the fun and games.
Queensland’s current Speaker, Labor MP Curtis Pitt, has filed documents supporting a CCC application to the High Court that could sink Trad’s extraordinary bid to keep a lid on things.
Lawyers for Pitt, who was replaced by Trad as state treasurer in 2017, and federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus have sought leave to the High Court to “intervene” in the case that will decide if findings from CCC misconduct probes into Queensland politicians and officials should be automatically released.
The CCC was granted leave by the High Court to challenge a decision last year of the Queensland Court of Appeal, which ruled a report it authored into former public trustee Peter Carne should be suppressed because it did not deal with corruption.
The Carne matter is a precedent-setter for Queensland, with Trad’s case in the Supreme Court delayed late last year to wait on the High Court, which is expected to sit on the Carne matter in April.
Annastacia Palaszczuk and Shannon Fentiman signed-off on funding Trad’s legal action to keep secret the report from the CCC’s year-long probe into allegations she improperly intervened in the 2019 appointment of her under-treasurer Frankie Carroll.
Last year, The Australian was blocked with threats of contempt from reporting its unearthing of Trad’s secret legal action.
The CCC report didn’t recommend any charges against Trad but is understood to be scathing about the Carroll appointment and wider politicisation of senior ranks of the public service. Trad has denied any wrongdoing.
But already, the probe – which also looked into the actions of the state’s former top public servant and now trade commissioner to the UK, Dave Stewart – forced new rules on how senior bureaucrats are recruited.
The High Court case centres on the CCC’s preparation of the Carne report for its oversight body, the Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee, and whether procedural fairness was breached and if it is covered by parliamentary privilege.
Pitt, who lost his job as treasurer in a factional coup by Trad after the 2017 poll, is supporting the CCC’s bid, telling the court that its decision “about the scope of the privilege will affect the Speaker’s future work”.
“The Speaker has an indirect interest in the proceedings because these proceedings will affect the scope of parliamentary privilege in Queensland, which the Speaker has a role in administering,’’ he said.
STOKING THE FIRE
The who‘s who of Queensland’s LNP have jetted to Townsville for the party’s state convention this weekend.
The motions to be debated are pretty stock standard – farmer, taxes and unions – but the real action will be going down at a meeting of the state executive on Friday when senate preselection dates are due to be decided.
If it feels ridiculously early to be thinking about the next federal election, it is worth noting the next poll could be as early as August 2024 – the same year as council and state elections in Queensland.
Queensland senate preselections are notoriously ruthless and Chooks hears this year will be no different with growing suspicion that two sitting senators – Paul Scarr and Gerrard Rennick – will be challenged.
The big mystery is whether former senator Amanda Stoker, who lost her seat in a statewide 4.28 per cent swing against the Coalition, plans to have another crack.
Stoker, an outspoken opponent of euthanasia and abortion, was relegated to No. 3 position on the party’s upper house ticket last year and the talk is she is unlikely to put her hand up again unless she can be guaranteed the top spot currently held by Scarr.
One LNP insider said: “There is serious talk about Scarr being challenged. He might not have the profile of others, but he has the intellect and the heart for the job”.
Saturday will see the election of a new regional vice-president for the party with Townsville real estate agent Natalie Marr stepping down to consider another tilt for a state seat, having run in Thuringowa in 2020.
Cairns lawyer Joshua Auld and Tara retiree Allan Bougoure are lining up to replace her.
The vote is said to be a test of the Young LNP‘s influence after the rumour-mill went into overdrive last month with speculation the youth arm was plotting to expand its power.
Chooks revealed concerns by more mature party members last month that the youngsters were “up to something”.
“I don’t know what it is, but they’re cunning and they’re up to something,” one insider said.
Another said: “The LNP is being hijacked by young inner-city Liberals.”
Auld, part of the YLNP, is favourite to win.
Sharpen the knives.
SUPER FRIENDLY
Interesting that the first superannuation fund to give any sort of support for Jim Chalmers’ push for changes in the sector came from the Australian Retirement Trust.
ART chief executive Bernard Reilly last Friday told The Australian that the proposed introduction of a cap for tax concessions on super balances was a “natural” step but that any limit would need to have a proper transition period.
“The purpose of superannuation is for us to save for our retirement,’’ O’Reilly said in an interview to mark the first anniversary of the merger.
“We save the money and get a tax break to do it in a tax effective way. If you leave it as an inheritance for your kids, that is not what it was designed for … If you think about it that way, then some form of cap becomes natural.”
Big win for Chalmers given that the ART, created last year with the merger of Queensland’s QSuper and Sunsuper, is now Australia’s second largest super fund with $240bn.
ART’s board is chaired by former Queensland Labor treasurer Andrew Fraser, one of Chalmer’s best mates.
The pair met at Griffith University back in the 1990s and later cemented their friendship in Canberra while Chalmers was studying for his PhD and Fraser was there working.
HARD PILL TO SWALLOW
David Crisafulli has been banging on about Annastacia Palaszczuk’s cabinet “tearing itself apart” over its push to relax drug laws in the same week it launched a youth crime crackdown.
The LNP leader told Sky News the decision to trial pill testing at Queensland music festivals was Palaszczuk’s “trade off with the Left ‘’ to get them on-board with tougher penalties for youth crims.
But there is plenty of disagreement in his own shadow cabinet on the merits of testing illicit drugs.
Education spokesman Christian Rowan – an addiction medicine specialist – and Energy spokesman Pat Weir – who has previously opened up about his son’s struggles with ice addiction – both backed in pill testing at a 2019 LNP convention.
In 2019, the party’s youth spokesman Sam O’Connor was also a supporter of testing drugs saying: “It has a better chance of stopping drug use than what we are currently doing. Isn’t that the outcome we want”.
But with the official LNP stance firmly against pill testing, the trio have distanced themselves from their previous comments.
In a joint statement to Chooks, O’Connor, Weir and Rowan said: “like everything the Palaszczuk Labor Government does, this left field announcement is dripping in politics following a shambolic Cabinet meeting full of trade-offs between warring factions.
“It lacks any form of detail or analysis. We fully support the position of the LNP Opposition. The LNPs position to oppose pill testing is in line with every other state government in the country.”
NEW LOBBYISTS ON THE BLOCK
The march of interstate lobbyists into Queensland continues with the arrival of former Liberal minister Christopher Pyne’s firm.
Pyne and Partners has this month set up a Brisbane office, headed by former Liberal staffer Will Redmond.
The firm has 10 clients on the books in Queensland including beauty giant L‘Oreal and manufacturer Stärke-AMG.
Pyne and Partners’ Brisbane expansion follows a similar move by Victorian firm Michelson Alexander last August after three of Queensland’s go-to lobbyists were black-listed by Annastacia Palaszczuk last year.
SPOTTED
Annastacia Palaszczuk may be a fiend for the red carpet but her LNP counterpart David Crisafulli seems to have developed a taste for expensive suits.
Crisafulli was spotted sporting a Bespoked Ian Chang suit bag this week.
Chang, whose customers include gaudy Gold Coast multi-millionaire Travers “Candyman” Beynon, told Chooks he can make suits blended with diamonds and 24K gold.
Starting the day on @SkyNewsAust Regional speaking with @jaynieseal about our solutions to curb crime and our upcoming @LNPQLD Shadow Cabinet forum in Townsville. #qldpolpic.twitter.com/UgY398eYqB
— David Crisafulli (@DavidCrisafulli) February 28, 2023
One Brisbane businessman bought a $30,000 suit recently with a special knit.
Chang says Crisafulli went for a “very simple wool fabric suit”, which would have set him back about $1200.
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