Queensland election: Steven Miles’ mate Gary Bullock in secret $20m talks

Steven Miles’s self-described mentor and powerful factional backer Gary Bullock has been in secret discussions with the Queensland Labor government to fund a $20m hospitality training facility.

Union boss Gary Bullock at Premier Steven Miles’ campaign launch at North Lakes on Sunday. Picture: Adam Head

Steven Miles’s self-described mentor and powerful factional backer Gary Bullock has been in secret discussions with the Queensland Labor government to fund a $20m hospitality training facility and “mock” restaurant to be jointly run by his union.

As Queensland secretary of the United Workers Union and Left factional convener, Mr Bullock ramped up his push for the gov­ernment to finance the project after last year delivering Mr Miles the state’s top job in a backroom party deal.

The “state of the art” facility is a joint proposal with the Queensland Hotels Association and framed as measure to tackle a hospitality workforce crisis in the lead-up to Brisbane’s 2032 Olympic Games.

Sources told The Australian that Mr Bullock had been personally lobbying Mr Miles, senior ministers and bureaucrats ahead of the campaign but had yet to ­provide a formal business case for the proposal.

It’s understood it was proposed the $20m in funding should come from the $100m fine the state government issued Star ­Entertain­ment in 2022 after an inquiry found it allowed money laundering at its Queensland casinos.

The proposal is now in limbo in the lead-up to the October 26 state election, with successive polls indicating the Miles government is on track to lose to the opposition Liberal National Party.

When approached by The Australian, Mr Bullock said there had been “preliminary discussions” with the state government for taxpayers to fund the proposal and he hoped it would be backed by LNP leader David Crisafulli if he became premier.

Mr Crisafulli has been a staunch critic of Mr Miles’s close relationship with Mr Bullock, who gave the Queensland Premier his first job at the union.

The LNP leader has accused Mr Bullock of having too much influence over Mr Miles.

Sources told The Australian Mr Miles had been involved in discussions and meetings over the proposed taxpayer-funded project.

“We’ve had some prelim talks, but obviously we’ve got an election now, so it’ll be parked, and we’ll see who’s in government,’’ Mr Bullock said, without saying who was involved in the talks.

“I hope it wouldn’t matter who is in government, obviously I want Labor returned,” he added.

Questions about the proposal were sent to the office of the Premier, who was campaigning in central Queensland on Tuesday, but there was no response at the time of publication.

The Queensland Hotels Association chief executive Bernie Hogan declined to comment.

On Sunday, Mr Bullock sat in the second row behind former Queensland premier Peter Beattie and ALP national president Wayne Swan to listen to Mr Miles’ speech to formally launch Labor’s campaign for re-election.

After the speech, Mr Bullock declared “it would have been great” if Mr Miles’s predecessor Annastacia Palaszczuk had quit politics earlier and given him more time to win over voters.

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing and, you know, had he had longer in the job, maybe he’d be able to convince more voting people of the things he wants to do for Queensland,’’ he said on Sunday.

Mr Bullock defended his push for taxpayers to fund the new ­facility, saying it would help address a staffing crisis in the hospitality industry.

Thousands of his union members work in hospitality, including at Star casinos which has its own training programs.

“We’ve got the Olympic Games coming up, and we want to see well trained hospitality staff,’’ he said.

In a statement, the UWU said the development proposal was designed to establish a registered training organisation.

“The RTO would focus on providing a Cert III in Commercial Cookery, but would include other courses currently offered by QHA such as a Cert III in Hospitality,” the statement said.