Premier Palaszczuk all at sea over romantic holiday at Hamilton Island
The reason behind the Premier’s unusual call, to toss overboard her weekly cabinet meeting, can be revealed.
G’day readers, and welcome to another bumper edition of Feeding the Chooks, our weekly column dedicated to all things Queensland politics, with a little business thrown in for good measure.
PREMIER ALL AT SEA
You can usually chart the Palaszczuk government’s course through the week from its regular Monday Cabinet meeting.
But this week, the captain wasn’t there to steer the ship, and the Monday meeting – which insiders say goes ahead rain, hail or shine – was cancelled.
Why?
The captain, aka Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, and her beau Reza Adib, had taken their apparent love for the high life to the high seas.
The doting couple were in the thick of things for the opening weekend of Hamilton Island Race Week, which made its luxurious return after a two-year Covid hiatus.
Her minders have assured the Chooks that the premier didn’t use the government jet to go north, paid her own way and took leave, with loyal deputy Steven Miles left at the helm from Saturday.
Palaszczuk and Adib stayed at the luxurious Qualia resort – which has previously hosted celebs Oprah Winfrey, Julia Roberts and George Clooney – and were then spotted on luxury yacht Quantum, owned by the Paspaley pearl family.
The boat was later the venue for the unveiling of the company’s latest collection.
According to Vogue magazine, Palaszczuk, Deborah Hutton and Nicky Oatley, were invited to “flex their sea legs” aboard racing superyacht Wild Oats XI for “a tame training session, before easing into island life” and a fancy dinner back at Qualia.
Well, after all that excitement, government insiders say Palaszczuk arrived back in Brisbane sometime Monday.
The Chooks are told Premier’s trip north is the reason the usual Monday Cabinet meeting was cancelled this week.
MARK HIS WORDS
What is it with Mark Bailey, his union mates and the trouble they seem to get into?
Bailey was stood down in 2017 as Energy Minister amid a Crime and Corruption Commission probe after he deleted his private email account when Chooks put in a Right to Information request for access to his secret chats with Electrical Trades Union bosses.
Bailey had been taking back-channel instructions from the ETU of which he was a longtime member after being shoe-horned into cabinet by his former union.
Now, as Transport Minister, his credibility is again experiencing somewhat of a bumpy ride – this time because of the CFMEU.
It all started on Tuesday, when more than a hundred CFMEU members used their collective might to storm the offices of the Department of Transport and Main Roads headquarters.
They managed to push their way into the CBD offices to stage a protest at the annual Queensland Transport and Roads Investment Program industry briefing, as it was due to begin.
It seems laughable except that a security guard was pushed over and scared staff were forced to retreat to back rooms in the face of these little big men.
According to the program, Bailey was due to deliver the opening address at 10.05am. But he didn’t show.
The political intrigue deepens when it turns out Bailey had a meeting with the CFMEU’s state secretary Michael Ravbar about 3pm the day before.
Bailey insists he was not tipped off about the planned protest, and has now released an email showing the department was told at 11am on Monday he wasn’t going, due to a meeting of the Cabinet Budget Review Committee.
Bailey has had a number of positions on the matter.
He was asked by Nine reporter Natarjsha Kramer on Wednesday: “Were you to attend the QTRIP yesterday at the TMR?”
Bailey responded: “No, no I wasn’t, that was designed for industry … maybe there’s a misapprehension there, but it was not my intention to attend.”
#EXCLUSIVE: There are calls for a major investigation following shocking revelations about a violent protest carried out by Queensland's biggest trade union. @NatarjshaKramer#9Newspic.twitter.com/36BxQqBC0r
— 9News Queensland (@9NewsQueensland) August 24, 2022
On Thursday, after the written program emerged, Bailey said: “I did yesterday indicate that I wasn’t scheduled (to attend), I was actually on the program.”
As you can imagine, the Opposition has made much of this apparent discrepancy, and even state and federal Labor MPs are chattering about the protest and Bailey.
On Thursday the CFMEU said construction workers had had a “gutful of being treated like a cheap and disposable commodity,” and the protest was nothing more than “key stakeholders” wanting to have a say on issues.
Insiders say the whole thing is aimed at TMR director-general Neil Scales, who is blamed for the CFMEU being locked out of a workplace deal on the Cross River Rail project.
True to form, Ravbar hasn’t returned a call from Chooks and sent out one of his deputies to field questions.
“Mr Bailey has had multiple warnings about the rogue elements in his department and their cavalier disregard for government procurement policy, yet he still fails to act,” CFMEU assistant secretary Jade Ingham said.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she condemned the CFMEU’s behaviour as “disgraceful” and alleged it was “putting workers’ safety at risk”.
And Bailey most recently has said Ravbar should make a public apology to TMR workers.
Police on Friday said they were still looking to the matter and whether charges will be pursued.
COAL COMFORT
Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick and the Queensland Resources Council (and large sections of the state’s coal industry) are in a public slanging match over the government’s hiked coal royalty rates.
On Tuesday, QRC boss Ian Macfarlane put out a typically strongly worded statement, claiming the coal sector had paid as much in state royalties in the first six weeks of the new tax regime as Dick had calculated it would cough up in a year.
“I’m not sure how much more the resources sector can say before someone in the state government realises the new tax regime is destabilising the Queensland economy and destroying jobs,” the chainsaw-voiced Macfarlane, a former Howard government minister, said.
On the same day, some of Dick’s Labor MP colleagues headed 400m underground with QRC at Kestral Coal Resources’s coking coal mine, at Emerald in central Queensland.
Keppel MP Brittany Lauga – previously featured in Chooks for protesting against her own government for failure to provide abortion services in Rockhampton – and LNP MP Trevor Watts offered the visit as Parliamentary Friends of Resources Co-Chairs, “in collaboration” with the QRC and Kestrel.
Labor’s Corrine McMillan, Joan Pease, and Jim Madden all went, along with the LNP’s Jarrod Bleijie, Tim Nicholls, Michael Hart, and Rob Molhoek.
It gave everyone the chance to don fetching outfits.
Lauga notes she invited Queensland Greens MPs Michael Berkman and Amy MacMahon on the mine tour, but did not receive a response. “I know you are very interested in mining and I trust this will be a valuable opportunity for you to become more informed about this important policy area,” Lauga wrote to Berkman on August 16.
STARRY EYED
There’s been some pretty juicy revelations at this week’s inquiry into Star Entertainment’s Gold Coast and Brisbane casinos.
Suspicious high-rollers lured to bet in the north using glitzy gifts like gold Rolexes, a suspected member of the Calabrian mafia as one of the Top 10 table players at Star’s site on the Glitter Strip, and current company chief executive Geoff Hogg in the witness box.
But one thing that hasn’t been mentioned is Star’s close relationship with Queensland governments of both political stripes.
The Chooks came across one example this week, which is instructive to look at in hindsight.
Dubbed one of Queensland’s most respected public servants, Gerald Bradley was Under Treasurer under the Goss and Beattie Labor governments, and then appointed by the Newman LNP government as the head of Queensland Treasury Corporation in 2012. QTC is the central financing authority for the Queensland government, and delivers borrowings for the state and other clients.
Interestingly, in 2013, Star Entertainment – then Echo Entertainment – appointed Bradley as one of its non-executive directors.
He held both roles concurrently for a decade, until he announced his retirement from QTC earlier this year. Bradley then became one of several Star top brass and board members to fall on their swords after the revelations of the NSW Bell inquiry.
On announcing his intention to retire from QTC this year, in February QLD Treasurer Cameron Dick said Bradley was: “a giant of the state’s bureaucracy and business world” whose “efforts for modern Queensland are unmatched”.
When Star (then Echo) told the ASX of Bradley’s appointment in February 2013, board chair John O’Neill said it would be “subject to regulatory approvals being obtained”. They were in May of that year.
“With three of Echo’s properties in Queensland, Gerard’s experience with business and government in Queensland will make him an invaluable addition to the board. Gerard’s strong financial background and extensive board experience will further strengthen the composition of the Echo board,” O’Neill told the stock exchange.
GETTING JIGGY WITH IT
Queensland parliament might have a reputation for being filled with old fuddy-duddies but it was brimming with young ‘uns last week.
The YMCA-run youth parliament took over the Premier’s and Speaker’s Halls to throw their annual mixer on Friday night.
Labor’sJoe Kelly, Kim Richards, Melissa McMahon and the LNP’s Sam O’Connor and James Lister all made appearances.
Richards and McMahon earned big brownie points with the youngsters when they organised for the lights to be dimmed over the dancefloor and launched into an energetic rendition of the Nutbush.
O’Connor, the LNP’s youth spokesman, went above and beyond in his bid to engage with the young parliamentarians.
He was spotted doing the Macarena in Fortitude Valley some hours later.
CHALMERS FLIES HIGH
One of the Chooks’ correspondents spotted federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers flying from Sydney back to his home city of Brisbane on Thursday, and noted he was flying in cattle class.
“Clearly doing his bit to balance the budget,” our corro chirped.
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