Steven Miles hits fundraiser amid LNP attack on Labor ties to Star casino
Queensland’s deputy premier tried to turn the tables as the LNP refocused scrutiny on Labor’s relationship with the gaming giant.
G’day readers, and welcome to another edition of Feeding the Chooks.
STAR TREATMENT
Queensland’s deputy premier Steven Miles on Friday tried to turn the tables on the LNP and their parliamentary attacks over Labor’s disturbingly close ties to Star casino.
Last week’s report from the short-run Gotterson Inquiry into Star left Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman with no choice but to issue a show cause over its Brisbane and Gold Coast casino licences.
And the LNP has since been rightly refocusing its parliamentary scrutiny on Labor’s relationship with the gaming giant and the run of good luck Star has seemingly enjoyed with Palaszczuk government decision-making over the years.
Not that it was explored by Robert Gotterson, a former Court of Appeal judge, in his five – yes, just five – days of hearings.
When asked why he didn’t go down that path, Gotterson told the Chooks that it didn’t arise in the Palaszczuk government’s terms of reference and that he understood the inquiry was to be “forward looking”.
One of the things he might have explored is that Star hosted and paid the costs of a Labor fundraiser at its Brisbane Treasury Hotel, ahead of the 2017 election, for Yvette D’Ath who as then Attorney-General was the regulator of gaming in Queensland.
The Chooks revealed it all a few years ago and the fact that after the fundraiser, D’Ath lifted the cap on the number of gaming tables for Star in Brisbane but rejected departmental advice to do the same thing for all casinos in Queensland.
At the time, ALP state secretary Julie-Ann Campbell – now an associate partner with government consultant EY – said she couldn’t be certain how many other fundraisers had been hosted by Star or what was behind several “gift in kind” donor declarations to Labor by the gambling company.
D’Ath has always brushed-off criticism about the fundraiser by Star, a company she was in discussions with over the Queens Wharf casino and possible rival casino on the Gold Coast, saying it was like using any other venue in town (except other venues probably wouldn’t offer to pay for booze and food).
It was the same defence on Friday, but this time from the LNP.
In parliament on Friday, Miles accused the LNP and its justice spokesman, Tim Nicholls, of hypocrisy for criticising D’Ath for having the Star-paid fundraiser despite holding a fundraiser this year in Star’s Gold Coast casino.
He said LNP leader David Crisafulli and LNP deputy leader Jarrod Bleijie hosted a “high-dollar fundraiser” in June at the penthouse of Star’s Darling Hotel on the Gold Coast, while the casino inquiry was underway and “just days before the donation caps came into effect”.
“They are complete hypocrites, they continue to attend these cash-for-access events, during (the casino) inquiry.”
The LNP have confirmed the fundraiser, but make the point that all costs were covered by the LNP and not Star.
“Star had nothing to do with the LNP fundraiser, except that it was at one of their venues.
Still, of all the gin joints, why did the LNP pick Star for its venue?
MULHOLLAND’S DRIVE
The scandal around Star didn’t seem to have any impact on the political fortunes of the gaming giant’s in-house lobbyist in Queensland, Corinne Mulholland.
Last month, Chooks revealed that as the Gotterson Inquiry was airing the casino’s dirty laundry, Mulholland was ramping up her campaign to be elected to a second term on the ALP National Policy Forum.
Sometime after that Mulholland’s LinkedIn page seemed to disappear.
A former staffer in the Palaszczuk government and one-time unsuccessful federal candidate, Mulholland was the nominee of the premier’s AWU-Right faction to be on the ALP federal policy body.
Mulholland’s predecessor at Star was Alison Smith, now head of the Local Government Association of Queensland, who was a Labor media adviser and is the partner of former Labor deputy premier Paul Lucas.
This week it was announced that Mulholland easily won re-election in a ballot of the rank and file for a second, three-year term on the policy committee.
Interesting to see if gambling reform will make its way on to the federal ALP agenda.
Deputy Premier Miles said he has no issues Mulholland’s re-election to federal Labor’s policy committee.
“People are entitled to work and they are also entitled to their private political activities,” he said.
POLICY-FREE ZONE
Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman, the frontbencher leading the Palaszczuk government’s reform agenda this term, has sprayed the LNP’s failure to introduce a single bill to parliament in the past two years.
Midway through an agonisingly long four-year term, LNP Leader David Crisafulli is yet to unveil any significant policies and has not sponsored any legislation.
As Fentiman pointed out, his predecessors – Deb Frecklington, Tim Nicholls and John-Paul Langbroek – championed eight, two and 10 private members bills respectively as leaders.
“They were actually doing their job, they were actually doing something,” Fentiman said.
“Even the crossbench is putting the Member for Broadwater to shame because between the Katters (Australian Party) and the Greens, they have had nine private members bills.”
But Fentiman should be carefully climbing on to her high horse.
Queensland this week lost the race to become the first Australian jurisdiction to criminalise coercive control, after NSW this week introduced historic legislation to outlaw the “red flag for murder”.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk promised coercive control would be criminalised in Queensland in February 2021 but laws to tackle the insidious behaviour will not be introduced until the back half of 2023.
The Palaszczuk cabinet is also yet to consider a landmark sexual violence report from former Court of Appeal president, Margaret McMurdo, which it was handed in June.
NEW LOBBYING REGULATOR, FINALLY
Queensland finally has a new permanent Integrity Commissioner, nine months after Nikola Stepanov announced she was departing the role, which is responsible for regulating the state’s booming and problematic lobbying industry.
Stepanov tendered her resignation in January, after alleging political interference in her role, and finished up at the end of June.
At last, her replacement has been announced. It’s Linda Waugh, presently the federal Merit Protection Commissioner, who reviews employment decisions in the federal public service, and has in the past served as deputy and assistant ombudsman in NSW and Victoria.
Waugh won’t start until December, when she’ll kick off a five-year term.
The Chooks will be keeping a close eye on the work of the office of the Integrity Commissioner, as we continue to probe the influence of politically connected lobbyists in the state.
Unfortunately, the office has long been understaffed, under-resourced, and overworked. Hopefully, Waugh will be properly supported by the government to do her important job.
In other integrity news, Palaszczuk on Friday introduced the first tranche of legislation to clean up the public service, recommended by Peter Coaldrake in his Let The Light Shine In report.
Under the reforms, embraced by both major parties, state public service chiefs will be employed for fixed five-year terms, preventing a new government from removing them.
That will prove particularly interesting if the LNP wins the 2024 election and is bound to keep key bureaucrats appointed by Labor.
Public service chiefs will also have to undertake annual diversity audits, which will be made public.
Other recommendations, like the release of secret cabinet documents within 30 days, will be introduced in future legislation.
RECYCLED DEBATE
As southeast Queensland prepares to be thrust into a fresh debate about a new water source by 2030, some new figures have been released revealing the cost of alternative, existing options.
Chooks revealed in the news pages this week that government agency Seqwater is bringing forward its 2040 deadline to find a new source for the region’s water grid to 2030. It’s flushing out two main ideas: build a new desalination plant (in addition to the existing Gold Coast facility) or permanently introduce recycled water into the water supply (through the already existing but underused Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme).
Premier Palaszczuk prefers the desalination option, apparently, which could cost from $4bn to $8bn. Against that background, Water Minister Glenn Butcher revealed the cost per megalitre for 2021-22 of supplying water from the Wivenhoe Dam, Gold Coast desal plant, and the Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme.
In a carefully worded response to the LNP, Butcher was at pains to point out that the production costs (including operation and maintenance costs) were approximate, variable and dependent on a number of factors.
Interestingly, the Mt Crosby Water Treatment Plant option (which treats Wivenhoe Dam water) cost $151 per megalitre. The Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme is the next most affordable at $541 per megalitre, and the existing Gold Coast desalination plant is the most expensive at $641 per megalitre.
According to the Chooks’ spies, Palaszczuk favours the desalination option, despite the cost, and is very keen to avoid the brutal public debate that swamped the public discourse last time recycled water was mooted as an option in the southeast.
This week, Chooks revealed that if the government went with the desal plant, over the relatively cost-neutral recycling option, users’ water bill will rise by between 15 and 20 per cent.
GAME ON
Queensland is just a decade away from hosting Palaszczuk’s pride and joy, and her favourite topic of conversation: the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and Paralympic Games.
And in recent days, we’ve had a further insight into the hidden costs her Department of Premier and Cabinet wore – through outsourced consultancies – to secure the Games for the Queensland capital.
In response to a question on notice from LNP MP Jon Krause, Palaszczuk told parliament her department – through the Brisbane 2032 Taskforce – spent $1,134,890.11 (excluding GST) on consultancies in 2021-22.
Sportfive Australia Pty Ltd was paid the lion’s share: $986,056.29 (excluding GST) for preparing and delivering Brisbane’s 2032 candidature work.
One of the government’s favoured professional services firms, KPMG, also scored a major contract, being paid $148,833.82 to come up with what benefits the games would deliver the state.
And in case you missed it, Palaszczuk has (belatedly) promised to change her ministerial title to honour the Paralympics, after stalling for months despite personal lobbying by some of the state’s top athletes.
She is now known as the Premier and Minister for the Olympics, but will add Paralympics to her title by the end of the year, after the athletes went public.
Paralympics Australia president Jock O’Callaghan told reporters at the time that Palaszczuk’s refusal to amend her title had been “at odds with everything we’ve committed to do with the 2032 Games”.
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