Palaszczuk government will no longer appoint Pat O’Shane to Cape York welfare reform role

The Palaszczuk government will no longer appoint Pat O’Shane to an influential Cape York welfare reform role.

Pat O'Shane.

The Palaszczuk government will no longer appoint Australia’s first Aboriginal magistrate Pat O’Shane to an influential Cape York welfare reform role, after she confirmed she fundamentally objected to the job’s key function.

Queensland Deputy Premier and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Minister Jackie Trad has been forced to ask outgoing Family Responsibilities Commission boss David Glasgow to again delay his retirement to allow a “proper selection process” for the $400,000-year position.

Deputy Premier of Queensland Jackie Trad.

The move is a significant about-face for the government, and comes just days after Ms O’Shane gave an extraordinary radio interview confirming she had personally been approached by Ms Trad and her director-general Chris Sarra to take what Ms O’Shane described as the “job from hell.”

Crucially, Ms O’Shane said she objected to the FRC’s power to quarantine the welfare payments of residents in five Cape York Aboriginal communities, describing it as an “extreme punishment”.

She was due to start this Monday.

The incendiary comments forced the Queensland government to delay appointing Ms O’Shane to the role, which was due to be signed off by the Palaszczuk Cabinet earlier this week.

It is understood Ms O’Shane will now not be given the job.

FRC local commissioners — respected elders from Aurukun, Mossman Gorge, Doomadgee, Hope Vale and Coen — said in a statement: “We welcome the government’s decision to reappoint David Glasgow and not proceed with the appointment of Pat O’Shane”.

“She would have been an inappropriate appointment because she does not support the objectives of the FRC.”

A spokesman for Ms Trad confirmed Mr Glasgow had been asked to stay on for a “further two months” while “an appointment to the FRC is finalised”.

“Constructive discussions with Noel Pearson from the Cape York Institute were held this week regarding the FRC, welfare reform and partnerships with Cape York Communities,” the spokesman said.

“We will continue to work with the Cape York Institute, the Commonwealth Government and all communities on the Cape to close the gap in outcomes for First Nations Queenslanders living in remote communities.”

The commission — the brainchild of Cape York leader Mr Pearson and financially backed by the state and federal governments — ­operates in five indigenous communities on the far north Queensland peninsula.

Local commissioners meet families and have the power to quarantine welfare payments if children skip school, if there are concerns a child is being harmed, if a parent is convicted of an offence, or if there is a domestic violence protection order against a parent.

Mr Glasgow — the FRC’s founding commissioner — said he had again agreed to delay his retirement to ensure a “proper selection process” was undertaken to find his successor. He said he also wanted to be able to formally introduce his replacement to the local commissioners, and conduct an orderly handover.

“I asked for that and said that was the basis upon which I would be willing to stay,” Mr Glasgow said.

Aurukun local commissioner Vera Koomeeta welcomed the news and said she and her colleagues were “over the moon”.

Maureen Liddy, a Coen local commissioner, said: “It made me sick to hear the comments (by Ms O’Shane) and to see what the agenda really was”.

Hope Vale-based Doreen Hart, one of the FRC’s founding local commissioners, said she hoped the Queensland and Commonwealth governments would work with elders on indigenous-led reforms.

“For FRC clients, school attendance improves, and for FRC clients, reoffending reduces and there is less breaching of conditions — this means social behaviour is improving which can be directly linked to our cultural counselling,” Ms Hart said.

Liberal National Party Opposition spokesman for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Christian Rowan described the events as an “embarrassing backflip” for the government.

“Jackie Trad has attacked the FRC for years and now has been forced into an embarrassing backflip, abandoning her handpicked appointee,” Dr Rowan said.

“It is time Labor started listening to Indigenous communities rather than attacking them.”

Ms O’Shane was born in far north Queensland and became the first Aboriginal barrister in Australia in 1976.

The FRC is at the centre of an ongoing funding stoush between the state and federal governments, leaving the independent statutory body’s future uncertain.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s department has accused Queensland of failing to accept a three-year funding offer for the FRC, but the state government says the most recent federal ­budget ignores the program­ ­completely. Queensland has guaranteed $2.262 million to keep the commission’s doors open until next July.