Integrity review’s damning ‘wake-up call’ to Annastacia Palaszczuk

Annastacia Palaszczuk vowed to accept ‘lock, stock and barrel’ recommendations in a scathing review of culture and accountability in the Queensland public sector.

The review says Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has an opportunity to lead the way nationally on improving transparency in politics. Picture: Paul Beutel

Annastacia Palaszczuk will ban lobbyists jumping from election campaign work into doing deals with the Queensland government, and release secret state cabinet decisions within 30 days in a bid to cauterise the integrity crisis gripping her third-term government.

The Queensland Premier vowed on Tuesday night to accept “lock, stock and barrel” recommendations from former university boss Peter Coaldrake in a scathing review of culture and accountability in the public sector.

Under the blueprint, lobbyists who go from involvement in an election campaign into business will be barred from dealing with the government for four years, a nod to the uproar created by The Australian’s revelations that two Labor-aligned lobbyists ran Ms Palaszczuk’s 2020 re-election campaign.

Peter Coaldrake

Former ALP state secretaries Cameron Milner and Evan Moorhead headed Queensland Labor’s election strategy as they continued to lobby the government on behalf of corporate clients, some of which were the subject of announcements by Ms Palaszczuk and her ministers before and during the campaign.

Ms Palaszczuk’s decision to accept all recommendations of the review on Thursday night will cripple the business model of Mr Milner and Mr Moorhead, who have become the state’s most sought after lobbyists.

The review also said Queensland’s integrity issues were shared by governments across the country and that Ms Palaszczuk had an opportunity to lead the way nationally on improving transparency in politics. In a withering finding, Professor Coaldrake reported “the growth of lobbying activity reveals what this review believes is a market failure: the failure of government itself to be able to deal with business and community interests without the involvement of a paid intermediary”.

The 131-page report by Professor Coaldrake, who overhauled the public service for former Labor premier Wayne Goss, describes a culture entrenched in Queensland’s public service that is tolerant of bullying, dominated by short-term political thinking and unwilling to give life to unfashionable points of view.

Cameron Milner. Picture: Tara Croser.

In the report, Professor Coaldrake quotes a former chief information officer for the state government, who described top public servants screaming over ¬requests to record meetings with lobbyists and sharing highly sensitive cabinet documents with third parties. “I have had people scream in my face regarding keeping written records as they believed they had relationships with clients which meant it was a betrayal of trust to write down decisions,” says the former official, who remains anonymous.

“I am aware of (deputy directors-general) directing staff not to record anything. I had an (assistant director-general) who electronically copied Class A cabinet submissions and then text them to uncontrolled parties ‘because she liked to work that way’.”

The former Queensland University of Technology vice-chancellor has urged Ms Palaszczuk to use his review as a “wake-up call” to support a more open and transparent government, insisting culture is shaped from the top down.

His report, titled “Let The Sunshine In”, makes 14 recommendations, including better protections for whistleblowers and explicitly prohibiting campaign-lobbyists – those who help parties win elections then act for clients to influence government.

The Coaldrake review follows a two-year investigation by The Australian into the growing power of lobbyists in Queensland It comes as the Crime and Corruption Commission steps up its probe into ties between government and lobbyists, warning corruption risks have “intensified” since the 2020 election campaign.

The Australian revealed in April that three Labor-linked firms secured 70 per cent of all meetings granted to lobbyists by Ms Palaszczuk’s government, exposing favoured access for those who helped on election campaigns.

Evan Moorhead. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

In his report, Professor Coaldrake said the appearance of guiding a political party to office one week, then advocating a corporate client’s case for a government decision a few weeks later “naturally raises suspicion which cannot be remedied by promises to impose Chinese Walls”.

“Most people would be incredulous at the proposition that a lobbyist working with a political leader in one capacity cannot later exercise special influence,” he wrote. “A sound approach would be for political parties and the lobbying firms themselves to recognise the damage to confidence in the system that arises from a willingness to create such conflicts. But this recognition of understandable community concern has been slow and can only be dealt with by regulation which prohibits professional lobbyists who work on a party political campaign from lobbying for a period before and after an election.”

Professor Coaldrake recommended secret cabinet agendas, submissions and decisions be proactively published online within 30 business days.

It would make Queensland the first Australian jurisdiction to implement such wide-ranging transparency measures. A similar cabinet framework was introduced in New Zealand in 2019.

“The community certainly tires very quickly when politicians, of any colour and in any jurisdiction, hide behind cabinet or ‘commercial-in-confidence’ to fend off legitimate questioning on even routine matters,” Professor Coaldrake wrote.

Ms Palaszczuk said she welcomed the findings. “They are bold, they are comprehensive and they are visionary and they are exactly what I want,” she said. “I wouldn’t have asked him to do it if I didn’t want reform. We will accept all of his recommendations. “The report will go to cabinet on Monday and we will begin work on implementing these sweeping reforms lock, stock and barrel.”