Labor Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk to snub Senate probe into Newman government

QUEENSLAND Labor is boycotting the Palmer-initiated Senate inquiry into the Newman government.

QUEENSLAND Labor is boycotting the Palmer-initiated Senate inquiry into the Newman government, with Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk saying only state institutions should probe state matters.

After months of silence, Ms Palaszczuk confirmed she was against the decision of Bill Shorten and federal Labor to deliver the Senate votes in late September needed by the Palmer United Party to set up the inquiry.

Ms Palaszczuk — who refused to give her position on the inquiry ahead of the Senate vote — said Queensland Labor would not be making a submission. “My own personal view is states should conduct their own inquiries into state matters,’’ she said at a press conference. The inquiry, chaired by PUP Senate leader Glenn Lazarus, is preparing to hold its first public hearings on the Gold Coast, in Brisbane and on the Sunshine Coast this month.

Ms Palaszczuk defended her silence over the inquiry — criticised for overstepping the powers of the Senate — saying she did not believe it was her position to advise her federal counterpart, Mr Shorten.

“Bill Shorten doesn’t tell me how to run my job here in Queensland parliament and I certainly don’t tell Bill Shorten how to run his job down in Canberra,’’ she said.

Queensland Labor senator Chris Ketter, on the inquiry’s five-member committee, last night defended the Senate vote to set up the PUP-initiated probe, but refused to say if he personally supported the inquiry.

“I support the decision of the Senate to conduct the inquiry,’’ he said, complaining he had been “caught on the hop’’ when called by The Australian. He would not comment on Ms Palaszczuk’s opposition to the inquiry.

Among the terms of reference, the inquiry is set to investigate the “proportion of the Queensland state budget derived from commonwealth funds’’ — which is openly declared in the state government’s budget.

Last month, the federal Coalition dubbed the inquiry Mr Palmer’s “personal vendetta’’ as it emerged Senator Lazarus would pocket an extra $21,464.30 for chairing the committee.

Mr Palmer’s relationship with the Queensland government soured after it failed to give him a mandate to build a 500km railway line from the Galilee Basin in central Queensland to the coal port of Abbot Point.

The inquiry has been tasked to look at the “approval process for the development of projects for the export of resources or services insofar as they are administered by the commonwealth or under a bilateral agreement with the commonwealth’’.